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'    ARGENTINE 

AST,    PRESENT   AND    FUTURE, 


A   LECTURE 

BY 

ELMER  L.  CORTHELL,  dr.  sc. 

onsulting  engineer  national  public  works  of  argentine. 
1  Nassau  Street,  New  Yokk  City. 


V^  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


New  York : 
BOWNE  &  CO.,  PRINTERS. 


190:i 


PHtbtHVAl  IUI>» 

COPY  ADDED 
ORIGINAL  TO  BE 
RETAINED 


NOV  1  S  ^992 


>^      Of  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


Two    YEARS    IX    ArGEXTIXE    AS     THE    CoXSULTIT^O 

Engineer  of  Xatioxal  Public  Works. 


Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen-. 

In  1899,  the  Argentine  Government,  having  con- 
ceived an  extensive  project  of  River  and  Harbor 
improvement,  and  made  the  preliminary  surveys, 
requested  the  U.  S.  Government  to  recommend  an 
engineer  who  would  come  to  Argentine  and  assist 
the  Government  by  his  advice  in  forming  and  exe- 
cuting the  plans. 

I  had  the  honor  of  being  selected  for  this  position. 
After  carrying  out  a  two  years'  contract  with  that 
Government,  I  have  returned  to  my  own  country 
with  some  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  some 
experience  in  meeting  them  which  form  the  basis 
of  this  lecture. 

At  the  final  general  session  of  the  International 
Navigation  Congress  at  Diisseldorf,  July  4th,  this 
last  year,  when  called  upon  to  respond  for  the 
Argentine  Republic,  I  used  the  following  words  : 

"It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  make  a  few  com- 
parisons between  the  two  countries,  which  by  a 
singular  coincidence  I  have  the  honor  to  represent 
—one  as  a  delegate  to  this  Congress  ;  the  other  as 
a  member  of  the  Permanent  International  Commis- 
sion. One  of  these  countries  is  the  Argentine  Re- 
public and  the  other  the  United  States  of  Xorth 
America. 

"Both  are  cosmopolitan. both  have  been  populated 
largely  from  Europe  ;  both  had  the  task  of  sup- 
planting savagery  by  civilization.  The  red  races 
in  each  case  had  to  give  way  to  the  Caucasian,  or 
be  assimilated  with  it.  Both  have  great  plains  and 
immense  river  systems.  The  greatest  river  valley 
of  the  one  is  almost  exactly  equal  to  that  of  the 
other.  Similar  causes  have  produced  nearly  similar 
hydraulic  conditions  in  each  case.  Both  countries 
have    temperate    climates,    both    great   mountain 


ranges  ;  both  some  extent  of  arid  lands  and  run- 
ning waters  for  irrigation.  Botli  iiiimense  areas  of 
rich  soils,  made  so  by  similar  beneficent  causes  ; 
both  liave  extensive  pasture  lands  and  millions  of 
cattle,  sheep  and  horses.  In  their  cereals  they  are 
competitors  with  each  other  in  the  food  uiarkets  of 
Europe— one  is  great  and  ambitious,  the  other 
smaller  but  earnestly  devoted  to  progress  and  am- 
bitious to  fulfill  its  high  destiny  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth." 

By  comparisons  of  tlie  unknown  with  the  known 
we  appre^'iate  and  learn,  and  for  that  reason  I  shall 
compare  Argentine  with  the  United  States  in  re- 
sjDect  to  some  of  its  more  important  features,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  two  great  countries  have  much 
in  common. 

You  must,  if  possible,  imagine  yourselves  in 
a  situation  exactly  opposite  from  yours  in  the 
United  States  in  regard  to  the  sun  and  the 
]Doles  of  the  earth  ;  you  must  look  north  for  warm 
winds  and  south  for  cold  ones.  Your  winter  will 
begin  in  June  and  your  summer  in  December.  The 
north  side  of  your  house  will  be  sunny  and  the 
south  side  in  the  shade.  As  you  travel  north  from 
Buenos  Aires,  the  Capital,  it  will  grow  warmer  ; 
as  you  go  south  you  will  at  last  reach  the  glaciers. 
Y^our  north  star  will  be  changed  to  the  southern 
cross,  and  in  all  these  changes  you  will  at  first  be 
lost.  Y^ou  must  also  locate  yourself  geographic- 
ally, and  recollect  that  the  northern  line  of  Argen- 
tine is  in  about  the  same  latitude  south  of  the 
Equator  as  Havana  is  north  of  it,  and  that  the 
southern  limit  of  Argentine  corresponds  to  Labra- 
dor and  Kamscatka  ;  and  that  Buenos  Aires,  Cape- 
town and  Melbourne  are  all  in  about  tli^  same 
latitude.  Also  that  there  are  east  and  west  differ- 
ences. Buenos  Aires  is  in  about  the  same  longitude 
as  Cape  Breton  Island,  east  of  Nova  Scotia,  and 
the  circle  of  longitude  along  the  most  westerly 
boundary  of  Argentine  nearly  passes  through  Au- 
gusta, Maine  ;  and  the  course  from  the  entrance  of 
the  River  Plate  to  Liverpool  is  nearly  a  straight 
line.  In  order  that  the  location  of  Argentine  in 
reference  to  other  South  American  countries  may 
be  appreciated,  it  should  be  stated  that  Buenos 
Aires  is  as  far  south  of,  say,  Caracas,  the  present 
center  of  revolutionary  and  unstable  South  Amer- 
ica, as  the  north  end  of  Lake  AVinnipeg,  in  Mani- 
toba, is  north  of  Caracas,  or  as  far  as  the  northern 
part  of  Greenland  is  north  of  New  Orleans. 


Witli  this  orientation  of  ourselves  on  the  XVest- 
ern  Hemispliere,  and  with  these  remarkable  diflfer- 
ences  in  position,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  a 
rery  remarkable  similarity  wherein  will  be  seen 
and  ap-preciated  tlie  beneticent  worlv  of  the  Great 
Creator  lono-  before  at  least  the  present  race  of 
mankind  inhabited  the  two  continents. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  at  Buffalo,  Aug. 
5,  1806,  upon  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  I  de- 
scribed the  ancient  conditions  of  that  great  river  in 
substance  as  folloW'S : 

First,  a  deep  shore  line  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
wdien  the  site  of  Galveston  was  far  out  in  the  waters 
and  the  coast  Avas  100  miles  inland  from  the  site  of 
Xew  Orleans, — a  wide  and  deep  estuary  1,000  miles 
long,  reaching  into  the  heart  of  the  continent  to  be- 
tween St.  Louis  and  Cairo,  where,  at  Cape  Gira- 
deau,  it  met  the  ridge  of  the  Ozark  Mountains, 
stretching  across  the  valley  and  holding  back  the 
ancient  Great  Lake,  which  covered  Chicago  200  feet 
deep  and  spread  over  all  the  great  Prairie  States 
and  received  and  distributed  over  its  bed  the  im- 
mense sediments  of  the  Missouri  and  other  great 
rivers  in  theNorth.  Then  came  the  cyclic  change  lift- 
ing Florida  out  of  the  water  and  turning  continental 
drainage  north,  cutting  its  way  through  the  allu- 
vion to  Hudson's  Bay".  Then  the  breaking  down 
of  the  Ozark  barrier  ;  the  draining  of  the  submerged 
area  ;  the  subsequent  tilling  of  the  Estuary  and  the 
advance  of  the  alluvial  lands  into  the  Gulf  to  their 
present  line,  110  ndles  beyond  New  Orleans.  A 
great  and  wonderful  beneficence  for  the  use  and 
convenience  of  man  by  the  Great  Architect  of  the 
universe. 

Had  not  my  engineering  experience  upon  the 
Mississippi  Kiver  a"nd  its  delta  drawn  my  attention 
to  this  extremely  interesting  ancient  liistory  of  the 
Great  River  of  'North  America,  I  might  not  have 
been  so  deeply  impressed  by  its  remarkable  simi- 
larity witli  that  of  the  Parana  River  in  South 
America;  and  for  both  histories  lam  indebted  to 
Engineering  investigators;  Gen.  Warren  in  the 
first  instance,  and  Col.  Geo.  Earl  Church,  an  Ameri- 
can Engineer  living  in  London,  in  the  second 
instance,  the  latter  probably  better  acquainted  by 
personal  contact  with  the  geography  and  hydrau- 
lics of  South  America  than  any  living  man. 

I  am  indebted  to  him  and  the  Royal  Geographic 
Society,  of  which  he  is  a  Director  and  a  Correspond- 


6 


ent,  for  most  of  what  follows  in  relation  to  this 
ancient  history  of  the  great  rivers  of  Aro-entine 
and  Central  South  America. 

There  are  four  great  breaks  in  ttie  mountain - 
fringed  continent  which  we  call  its  great  commer- 
cial doorways.  The  Orinoco,  tlie  Amazon,  the  La 
Plata  and  the  deep  indentation  of  Bahia  Blanca, 
— one  in  Venezuela,  one  in  Brazil  and  two  in  Ar- 
gentine. The  three  river  basins  occupy  two-thirds 
of  the  entire  area  of  South  America. 

The  two  with  which  we  are  most  interested  in 
this  lecture  are  the  La  Plata  and  Amazon,  Avhich 
have  areas  respectively  of  about  l^WO.OOO  square 
miles  and  ,'?,7i?^,6'6'6'.  But  if  we  deduct  from  the 
latter  the  valley  of  the  Tocantins,  Avhicli  has  no 
direct  connection  with  it,  the  valley  of  the 
Amazon  is  '2,368^000  square  miles  ;  its  principal 
branch,  the  Madeira,  has  a  volume  of  discharge 
nearly  equal  to  the  Amazon  itself,  and  at  the  falls, 
which  I  shall  refer  to  later,  it  carries  annually  a 
volume  equal  to  that  of  the  La  Plata,  which  has  a 
minimum  how  of  about  531^.^000  cubic  feet  per  sec- 
ond and  a  maximum  of  over  '2,000,000—^  river 
80  per  cent,  larger  than  the  Mississippi,  the 
Father  of  Waters,  if  we  compare  their  mean  an- 
nual discharges,  the  former  being  about  288  cubic 
miles  and  the  latter  156  cubic  miles.  The  Parana 
("the  mother  of  the  sea"  in  Indian  language), 
the  principal  affluent  of  the  La  Plata,  is  itself  1^6% 
larger  than  the  Mississippi,  its  mean  annual  dis- 
charge being  about  230  cubic  miles. 

What  a  river  the  La  Plata  must  have  been  in 
ancient  times,  when  it  had  a  maximum  discharge 
of  li-.OOOfiOO  cubic  feet  per  second,  well  up  towards 
the  modern  Amazon,  estimated  to  be  5^297,000, 
and  greater  than  the  ancient  Amazon  ! 

I  have  described  the  ancient  conditions  of  the 
Mississippi— the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as  a  great  estuary 
and  a  deep  shore  line  extending  well  into  the  heart 
of  the  North  American  Continent.  The  same  con- 
ditions existed  in  the  contour  line  of  South  America 
in  the  La  Plata  estuary.  It  extended  l,Jt.OO  miles 
into  the  Continent,  and  was  400  miles  wide — eleven 
times  greater  than  the  Empire  State.  It  was  the 
•great  Pampean  Sea,  receiving  the  drainage  not  only 
of  the  present  Parana  and  its  tributaries,  but  of 
the  great  Madeira  River  with  its  immense  dis- 
charge of  waters  and  sedimentary  matters — the 
source  of  great  alluvial  formations,  discharging 
into  a  sea  two-thirds  the  size  of  the  Mediterranean. 


When,  in  tlie  processes  of  Nature,  tlie  great  un- 
derwater plains  of  rich  soil  had  been  formed  durinfj 
the  comparatively  short  period  of  less  than  100, 000 
years,  a  dam  was  thrown  across  the  Madeira  by  the 
rivers  Grande  and  the  Parapiti  comini;-   down  from 


Ancient  Pampean  Sea  and  Lake  Mojos. 

the  Andes,  and  a  deposit  more  than  170  feet  deep 
occurred  forming  this  dam,  which  produced  the 
ancient  Lake  Mo]OS  with  an  area  of  about  115,000 
square  miles,  larger  than  that  of  the  Great  Lakes 
of  North  America  combined,  which  is  less  than 
QJt.OOO. 

The  remarkable  action  of  these  rivers  and  the 
changes  caused  by  it  is  graphically  told  by  Col. 
Church  in  his  paper  upon  "  Argentine  Geography 
and  the  Ancient  Pampean  Sea." 

"  The  Grande  and  the  Parapiti  entered  the  plain 
with  a  northern  trend  to  contest  with  the  great 
river  of  the  north  the  possession  of  the  gap.  They 
struck  it  almost  at  a  right  angle,  and  slowly 
pushed  their  rival  eastward  over  against  the  Chaco 
base  of  the  Chiqiiitos  sierras.  Here  the  final  con- 
flict  must   have    taken    place,  as    the  Grande   and 


8 

Parapiti  threw  their  dam  across  the  outlet  of  the 
Mojos  River,  thus  cuttino-  off  its  exit  into  the 
ancient  sea.  'No  doubt  the  giant  stream  waged 
fierce  war  for  thousands  of  years  to  keep  its  chan- 
nel open,  alternately  sweeping  away  the  bamer 
and  again  yielding  to  the  ceaseless  volume  of  sand 
and  clay,  which,  visible  to-day,  confirms  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Grande  and  Parapiti.  The  dam  having 
finally  become  permanent,  the  formation  of  the 
ancient  Lake  Mojos  was  assured.  AVhen  it  reached 
the  level  of  the  lip  of  Guajara-mirim,  its  waters 
commenced  to  tumble  over  it  and  carve  their  way 
to  the  Amazon.  Since  then  huge  volumes  of  allu- 
vium have  poured  down  the  northern  slopes  of  the 
Bolivian  Andes  ;  the  ancient  lake  is  now  almost 
loaded  with  material,  but  it  is  not  yet  entirely  ob- 
literated. The  inuddy  silt  which  covers  the  sur- 
face of  the  basin  is  so  fine  that,  when  an  Indian 
goes  up  stream  to  the  mountains,  his  friends  ask 
him  to  bring  back  a  stone  that  they  may  see  what 
it  is  like. 

"Since  forming  the  dam,  the  Rio  Grande  has 
slowly  been  returning  westward  down  the  counter- 
slope  which  its  own  alluvium  creates." 

During  the  process  we  have  described,  the 
Ancient  Lake  and  the  Pampean  Sea  were  connected 
and  their  relation  Avas  similar  to  that  of  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  Mediterranean,  Traces  of  it  are  still 
observable,  notably  the  great,  low,  flooded  morass 
of  Xarayas  on  the  ui)per  Paraguay  River,  and  the 
ancient  delta  of  the  Parana,  including  the  Ybara 
lagoon.  The  Salina  Grande  was  also  an  arm  of  it 
— a  great  inland  fiord.  The  sea,  moreover,  must 
have  covered  large  areas  of  Paraguay,  Corrientes, 
Entre  Rios  and  Uruguay,  and,  before  the  uplifting 
of  the  country,  it  extended  southwest  to  the  rivers 
Chadi-Leofu  and  the  Colorado,  lapping  round  the 
southern  slope  of  the  Ventana  range,  until  the 
curved  rim,  concave  to  the  northeast,  which  con- 
nects this  with  the  Sierra  de  Cordova,  was  suffi- 
ciently elevated  to  completely  cut  off  its  south- 
western extension. 

This  range  was  high  <-nough  to  lodge  the  glacial 
rocks  coming  from  the  Andes,  one  of  which  at  Tan- 
dil  is  so  poised  and  delicately  balanced  that  the 
hand  can  rock  it,  but  it  cannot  be  dislodged.  This 
range  later  prevented  the  entrance  of  the  destruct- 
ive sea,  protecting  the  great  area  from  its  waves. 

Then  came  another  factor  into  the  beneficent 
problem  of   the   Creator.     Instead  of  draining  the 


waters  from  the  great  (le]iosits  under  tlie  Pampean 
Sea,  as  He  did  "in  North  Ainerica,  lie  lifted  the 
Andes  higher,  and  with  them  their  Athuitic  slopes, 
until  the  latter  were  ultinuitely  lifted  to  their  pres- 
ent level,  forming  the  "Plains  of  the  Pampas," 
the  soil  of  which  is  50  feet  deep  and  of  surpassing 
richness — an  area  of  600,000  square  miles,  one-fifth 
the  size  of  the  United  States  and  five  times  that  of 
Great  Britain.  Thus  by  cyclic  changes  in  the 
Northern  Hemisphere,  and  by  iiuvial  and  sedi- 
mentary action  and  seismic  changes  in  tlie  Southern 
Hemisi^here,  have  been  formed  the  great  interior 
agricultural  regions  of  the  United  States  and 
Argentina. 

Let  me  now  quote  from  Mr.  Revy's  work  on 
"Hydraulics  of  Great  Rivers"  (Argentine  rivers 
which  he  surveyed)  where  he  compares  the  rivers 
as  we  now  find  them  with  others  well  known. 

"  Great  as  the  volume  of  the  Parana  River  at  its 
lowest  summer  level  is,  immense  in  comparison  to 
the  largest  European  river,  and  much  larger  than 
that  of  all  the  European  rivers  put  together,  it  is 
but  a  small  fraction  of  its  flood  volume  during  ex- 
ceptional rises  ;  and  we  can  only  wonder  at  the 
magnitude  of  the  sources,  which  for  months,  nay 
for  whole  years  together,  pour  forth  inconceivable 
masses  of  sweet  w^ater,  every  drop  of  wdiich  has 
been  raised  by  the  power  of  the  sun  from  the  Pa- 
cific and  Atlantic  Oceans  above  the  tops  of  the 
highest  mountains  of  Brazil  and  the  Andes. 

"To  convey  an  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
rivers  which  have  been  considered  and  analyzed  in 
the  preceding  chapters,  we  have  show^i  on  Plate  V 
several  of  the  larger  known  rivers,  such  as  the  Dan- 
ube and  Thames  of  Europe,  and  the  Mississippi  of 
North  America.  They  are  all  drawn  to  the  same 
scale,  and  their  relative  size  may  somewhat  be  ap- 
preciated. The  Mississippi  isjiolujijike  the  IlriL- 
guay  in  dimensions  ^amT  other'  features — we  have 
"simflarlLy^in  wndth,  depth,  currents  and  fall,  al- 
though the  North  American  is  the  larger  of  the  two. 
Comparing,  however,  the  Parana  with  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  former  might  claim  the  latter  as  his  ec- 
centric daughter  under  fourteen. \  The  low  water 
dimensions  measure  a  river's  greatness,  although 
things  of  different  natures  and  character  do  not  bear 
strict  comparison.  What  we,  however,  understand 
by  greatness  is  possessed  in  an  exceptional  degree 
bv  the  Parana." 


In  order,  further,  to  compare  tlie  Parana    River 

'itli  others,  it  may  be  stated  that  its  annualllowis 

louble  that  of  the  Ganges,  three  times  that  of  the 

Saint  Lawrence,  four  times   that  of   the    Danube, 

and  lin^  times  that  of  the  2s^ile.      We  have  records 

of  608  cubic  miles  in  one  year. 

There  are  differino-  conditions  of  importance  be- 
tween the  Parana  and  the  Mississippi,  explaining 
the  causes  of  the  greater  disclmrge  of  the  Parana. 
While  they  both  How  South,  one  flows  from  colder 
to  warmer  and  the  other  from  warmer  to  colder 
regions  ;  and  it  is  in  the  warmer  regions  in  both 
cases  that  the  rainfall  is  the  greater.  On  the  Mis- 
sissippi, in  the  Northern  regions,  where  we  And 
the  greatest  drainage  area,  the  rainfall  is  about  85 
inches  per  annum  ;  in  the  Southern,  where  the  area 
is  less,  the  rainfall  is  QO  inches  per  annum.  With 
the  Parana  there  is  a  rainfall  of  about  60  inches  in 
the  Northern  part,  where  the  drainage  area  is 
greater,  and  about  40  inches  in  the  Southern  part, 
where  it  is  less. 

The  length  of  the  Parana  River  is  about  3001) 
miles  ;  its  navigable  length,  between  Cuj^aba  in 
in  the  Xorth  and  the  mouth  of  the  Parana  in  the 
delta  of  the  La  Plata,  is  1825  miles.  The  Urugruay 
River,  from  San  Javier  to  the  delta  of  tlje^taPlata, 
has  a  navi.o-able  leno-th   of   (308jniil£g,xn'lip  Pnran.i 


i-';ills  of  Y-sjuazil. 


River  is  made  up  of  the  two  important  rivers  which 
unite  at  the  City  of  Corrientes  ;  the  Paraguay  and 


11 

the  Alto  Parana.  The  lenii:th  of  the  latter  a])ove 
Coi-rientes,  to  the  falls  of  the  Yguazii,  is  365  miles, 
and  it  is  navigable  nearly  to  that  point.  These 
wondrous  falls' excel  in  beauty,  as  well  as  exceed 
in  dimensions,  the  Niagara  Falls. 

The  latter  are  160  feet  high,  as  a  maximum,  and 
four-fifths  of  a  mile  long,  including  Goat  Island. 
The  Y-guazii  are  218  feet  high  in  one  leap  and  106 
feet  in  two  leaps,  and  2  1/8  miles  long,  with,  at 
times,  an  immense  volume  of  water. 

The  view  before  you  is  from  a  painting  by  a  well- 
known  Bern  painter,  Mr.  Methfessel,  who  was  en- 
gaged to  come  to  Argentine,  visit  the  Falls  and 
make  a  large  paintingfor  the  La  Plata  Museum. 

The  gorgeous  and  varicolored  foliage  of  the  lux- 
uriant subtropical  vegetation,  whidi  abounds  on 
all  sides,  adds  a  charm  to  the  falls.  They  rank 
among  the  most  beautiful  and  wonderful  works  of 
the  Creator. 

The  remolinos,  or  whirlpools,  below  the  falls  equal 
the  famous  wliirl])ool  at  Niagara. 

The  Uruguay  is  an  entirely  different  river,  in 
every  respect,  from  the  Parana.  It  is  at  times  a 
mighty  river  rivaling  the  Parana  ;  at  others  it  sinks 
into  comparative  insigniticance.  The  Parana  is  a 
great  river  at  all  times 

The  Parantl  is  a  type  of  a  truly  great  river  ; 
the  Uruguay  represents  a  mighty  torrent  of  ex- 
traordinary dimensions. 

The  Uruguay  rises  near  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  in 
Brazil,  in  the  Sierra  del  Mar,  then  runs  west  to  the 
highland  of  the  territory  of  Missiones.  These 
highlands  prevent  it  from  uniting  with  the  Alto 
Parana  River  at  that  point,  which  is  only  about 
68  miles  distant.  .Vlong  600  miles  of  its  course 
from  San  Javier  to  Concordia,  the  bed  of  the  river 
is  iilled  with  rocky  ridges,  which,  at  low  water, 
prevent  continuous  navigation, but  during  the  floods, 
which  are  quite  sudden  but  not  long  continued, 
the  river  is  everywhere  navigable.  The  river  rises, 
in  floods,  at  Concordia  about  46  feet.  Compared 
with  the  Parana,  it  is  a  clear  stream,  carrying  very 
little  sediment  in  suspension.  The  Parana  is  an 
entirely  different  river.  Its  source  being  in  the 
troi)ical  and  rainy  region  of  Brazil,  on  the  flanks  of 
the  Andes,  its  floods  are  much  longer  continued. 
At  the  confluence  of  the  Parana  and  the  Alto  Pa- 
rana at  Corrientes,  the  rise  of  the  floods  is  about  83 
feet  ;  at  Rosario,  225  miles  above  Buenos  Aires,  it 
is  from  19.7  to  23    feet   or   23  1/2   feet   in   extreme 


12 

floods.  When  these  occur,  the  river  is  about  2'S 
miles  wide,  covering  the  entire  country  with  a  depth 
of  6  to  10  feet,  and  extending  to  the  highlands  of 
the  Province  of  Entre  Rios. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  bed  of  the 
river  are,  consequently,  entirely  different  from  those 
of  the  Uruguay  ;  the  bed  of  the  latter  is  stable, 
that  of  the  former  very  unstable.  The  sedimentary 
matters  carried  in  suspension,  however,  are  very 
much  less  than  those  of  the  MississipxDi  ;  probably 
only  one-tenth  of  the  amount  carried  in  the  Missis- 
sippi in  times  of  flood  For  this  reason  the  changes 
in  the  bed  and  banks  are  less  radical ;  the  most 
noticeable  change  is   the  movejuent   of   thn  islands 


River  Parana  from  Grain  Elevator. 

and  bars  down  stream.  For  example,  the  Island 
of  Espinillo,  in  front  of  the  City  of  Rosario,  lying 
in  the  middle  of  the  river  and  about  2  1/2  miles 
long,  has  moved,  flanking,  down  stream  about  2  1/2 
miles  in  the  last  oO  years,  and  by  this  movement 
the  advancing  bar  of  the  island  has  approached  the 
river  bank  in  front  of  Rosario  and  closed  up  the 
navigation  channel. 

The  maximum  velocity  in  great  floods  often 
reaches  6  1/2  feet  per  second,  although  usually  it 
is  much  less,  equal  to  that  of  the  lower  Mississippi. 

Both-rLvers  are^siisceptible  of  improvement  by 
dredging,  the  one  to  Asuncion,  whlxjh  is  842  ,miles 
above  the  mouth,  and  the  second  to_Concordia, 
which  is  280  mijes  above  its  mouth.  In  the  Parana 
there  is  nothing  but  sand  to  be  removed  through- 
out its   entire  length  ;  in  the    Uruguay  there  are- 


18 

several  places  where  it  is  necessary  to  remove  rock 
and  gravel.  But,  generally,  the  channel  can  be 
deepened  by  hydraulic,  or  suction,  dredging. 

The  National  Government  is  under  obligation, 
by  the  law  passed  by  Congress  for  building  the 
Port  of  Rosario,  to  make  and  maintain  a  depth  of 
21  feet  at  low  water  in  the  Parana  River  from  the 
head  of  the  Delta  to  Rosario.  and  in  the  Delta  of 
the  La  Plata  to  Buenos  Aires  a  depth  of  19  feet  at 
low  water,  which  is  about  21  feet  at  mean  high 
tide.  It  has  been  proposed  to  make  and  maintain 
a  channel  of  the  following  dimensions  :  From  the 
mouth  of  the  two  rivers,  at  the  Island  of  Martin 
Garcia,  at  the  head  of  the  La  Plata  estuary,  to 
Rosario,  a  depth  of  21  feet  and  a  Avidth  of  328 
feet.  Rosario  to  Santa  Fe,  292  miles  above  Martin 
Garcia,  19  feet  deep  and  828  feet  wide  ;  Santa  Fe 
to  Corrientes,  10  feet  deep,  and  the  same  depth  to 
Asuncion.  Santa  Fe,  or  its  seaport  Colastine,  is 
the  head  of  ocean  navigation  ;  above  that  point  it 
is  river  navigation  by  steam  boats. 

On  the  Uruguay  River  it  is  XDroposed  to  make  a 
channel  19  feet  deep  and  328  feet  wide,  from  Mar- 
tin Garcia  to  Concepcion  del  Uruguay,  137  miles 
above  Martin  Garcia,  and  thence  lo  feet  deep  to 
Colon,  aiid  9  feet  deep  and  8  feet  over  the  rock  to 
Concordia,  which  is  230  miles  above  Martin 
Garcia. 

The  low  water  plane,  or  zero,  in  both  rivers  is 
that  of  extraordinary  low  water,  so  that,  gener- 
ally, the  low  water  does  not  reach  this  plane  within 
about  half  a  metre  to  one  metre.  Consequently, 
there  can  generally  be  depended  upon  from  2  to  8 
feet  more"  water  than  I  have  stated.  Between 
Rosario  and  Buenos  Aires,  there  are  now  no  bars 
over  which  there  is  not  21  feet  of  water  at  Zero,  al- 
though two  of  them  need  to  be  dredged  and  buoyed 
in  order  to  make  a  straighter  channel.  This  the 
Government  is  jn-epared  to  do. 

As  to  the  Port  of  Rosario  :  a  contract  has  re- 
cently been  made,  under  the  Law  of  Congress,  to 
make  a  modern  seaport  at  this  point,  with  all  the 
latest  and  best  facilities  for  handling  cargo.  _  The 
commerce  of  Rosario  is  at  present  11/2  million 
tons  per  annum.  It  is  a  very  imi)ortant  exporting 
point  for  cereals,  and  when  the  port  is  completed 
according  to  the  plans  adopted,  it  is  expected  to  be 
an  important  importing  port  as  Avell.  There  are 
ports  below  Rosario,  such  as  Villa  Constitucion, 
San  Nicolas  and    San   Pedro,  and  above  Rosario, 


14 

Diamante,  Santa  Fe,  Colastine  and  Parana.  On 
the  Uruguay  River,  Concordia,  at  tlie  head  of 
steamboat  navigation,  is  an  important  importing 
and  exporting  port  for  that  section  of  tlie  country. 
Its  registered  tonnage  is  about  half  a  million  tons, 
and  the  actual  weight  tonnage  about  100,000. 

The  country  between  the  Parana  and  Uruguay 
rivers  is  practically  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the 
country,  and  its  situation  is  very  similar  to  the 
country  lying  between  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris ;  for  that  reason  it  has  been  called  the 
"  Mesopotamia  Argentina.'' 

There  are  at^present  in  this  area  three  railroad 
systemsTTIie^rgentin'e  North  Eastern,  which  runs 
from  Corrientes,  on  the  Parana,  to3fonte  Caseros, 
on  the  Uruguay,  and  from  there  to  banto  Tome,  on 
the  same  river  ;  the  Ai-gentine  Enstern  from  Monte 
Caseros  to  Concordia,  and  the  Entre Pios  Railroads, 
the  main  line  of  which  connects  Parana  and  Con- 
ception del  Urugiiay,  with  branches  to  Victoria, 
Gaaleguay,  Gualeguaychu  and  Villaguay.  Within 
a  few  months  a  connecting  line  will  be  completed  to 
Concordia,  forming  a  link  between  the  Argentine 
Eastern  and  the  Entre  Rios  systems.  It  has  been 
proposed  to  unite  these  three  systems  and  to  ex- 
tend the  Argentine  North  Eastern  from  Santo 
Tome  to  Posadas  on  the  Alto  Parana,  passing 
through  the  colonies  which  the  Government  is 
establishing  in  that  territory.  Posadas  is  its 
capital.  The  Central  Paraguay  Railroad,  which 
runs  in  a  south-easterly  direction  from  Asuncion, 
it  is  proposed  to  extend  to  Villa  Encarnacion,  a 
small  town  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  River  from 
Posadas  ;  to  change  the  gauge,  which  is  5  1/2  feet 
to  the  normal  gauge  of  the  other  three  railroads, 
which  is  4  feet  8  1/2  inches  ;  make  a  transfer  by  car 
iioat  at  Posadas  ;  extend  the  Entre  Rios  Railroads 
to  a  port  of  deep  water,  either  on  the  Parana  or 
Uruguay,  and  do  a  ''  through  "  business  between 
Asuncion  and  this  new  seaport,  which  will  be 
only  a  few  hours  distant  from  Buenos  Aires. 

With  the  Parana  River  improved  to  Asuncion, 
and  the  Uruguay  improved  to  Concordia  ;  with  the 
railway  systems  united  and  extended  to  a  good 
seaport,  this  great  interior  district  of  the  country 
will  have  an  idfiai_system  of  ^transportation,  and 
the  shipper  may  takehis^chbice,  to  sliip  by 'rail  or 
by  water,  thus  establishing  a  very  usefuland  rea- 
sonable competition  between  water  and  railway,  to 
the  great  advantage  of  the  people. 


If) 

111  reference  to  the  Rio  cle  la  Plata  itself,  it  is  an 
immense  shoal  estuary-  It  is  the  depositini*-  ground 
of  the  great  Parana  River.  This  estuary,  in  a  not 
very  remote  x>eriod,  extended  above  Santa  Pe  ;  this 
is  shown  by  the  comparison  of  old  maps,  of  which 
92  have  been  collected  and  copied  and  placed  in  the 
Library  of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Works.  These 
maps  date  from  the  year  1529  to  1885.  Even  in  this 
comparatively  short  period,  remarkable  changes 
are  shown  in  the  Delta  of  the  Parana,  which  is 
now  a  true  delta,  almost  exactly  in  the  form  ol*  the 
Greek  letter   A.     It   is  40  miles  across  its    face;  it 


UK.l.TAu,    Mi,    Itltl  I'AHANA                                               „,   ,.  , 

,::,:..,.,.„:.„ 

,,,,:,.„ 

.V.       ■       '.                                                                             ,    ^^, 

^■- 

/9^^^ 

; 

^J''^*^^_^^I-WN»t,.<^ 

-3^:U 

1 

^^^^'^'    ■    ■■■   ' " 

"    ".- 

■ 1 

La  Plata  Superii)r  and  Delia  of  Parana 

slowly  extends  itself  in  the  head  of  the  estuary, 
and  through  the  Delta  nearly  a  dozen  outlets  of  the 
Parana  River  find  their  way.  It  is  very  much  like 
the  deltas  of  the  Danube,  Ganges  and  Mississippi. 

The  superficial  extension  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
exceeds  18,000  square  miles;  it  is  about  186  miles 
long  and  varies  in  width  from  186  miles  at  the 
Ocean,  between  Capes  San  Antonio  and  Santa 
Maria,  to  1.12  miles  at  the  extreme  point  of  the 
head  of  the  estuary,  at  Punta  Gorda. 

To  understand  the  physical  conditions  of  the  es- 
tuary, it  is  necessary  to  divide  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
into  Superior  and  Inferior,  or  upper  and  lower. 
The  Rio  de  la  Plata  Superior  lies  above  a  line  ex- 
tending between  La  Plata  and  Colonia,  the  Inferior 
below  that  line  to  the  sea.  Over  a  distance  of 
about  25  to  30  miles  between  Martin  Garcia  and  the 
anchorage  of  Biienos  Aires,  there  is  a  normal 
depth  through  the  best  channels  of  from  16  to  20 
feet  at  low  water. 


16 

.  TJie  National  Government  lias  recently  com- 
pleted the  dredging  over  the  San  Pedro  bar  lying 
in  this  region,  increasing  the  depth  of  18  1/2  feet 
to  21  feet,  where  there  was  formerly  only  15  feet. 
In  the  Canal  de  las  Limetas,  or  Nnevo  Canal,  by 
natural  forces  and  by  the  constant  movement 
of  steamers,  there  lias  been  obtained  a  depth 
of  about  19  1/2  feet,  or  21  1/2  feet  at  mean  high 
tide.  Opposite  Farallon,  a  rocky  point  on  the 
Uruguay  shore  and  opposite  Buenos  Aires,  there 
is,  along  the  course  of  navigation,  about  19  1/2  feet 
at  low  water.  The  Government  has  buoyed  with 
luminous  buoys  the  entire  route  from  Buenos 
Aires  to  the  mouths  of  the  Parana  River,  the 
Bravo  and  the  Guazu,  and  has  placed  a  floating 
semaphore  below  Martin  Garcia  for  the  beneilt  of 
navigation,  recording  constantly  by  signals  by  day 
and  by  night  the  depth  of  water  in  the  channel. 
It  is  now  proposing  to  connect  this  semaphore  by  a 
telephone  cable  with  the  telegraph  cable  of  Martin 
Garcia,  so  that  communication  may  be  established 
between  tlie  shii:)S  lying  at  anchor  (waiting  for  tlie 
tide,  or  passing  near  the  semaphore),  and  the 
offices  of  the  agents  at  Buenos  Aires  or  Monte- 
video. 

A  careful  study  of  the  different  conditions  in  the 
Delta  of  the  La  Plata  shows  that  the  only  method 
of  improvement  in  such  a  vast  expanse  of  water  is 
by  dredging  and  buoying  the  best  channels. 

'in  the  lower  Rio  de  la  Plata  there  are  very 
serious  conditions.  A  bar  on  which  there  is  a  least 
depth  of  20  feet  at  low  tide  lies  between  the  an- 
chorage of  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo  ;  the 
material  in  this  bar  is  very  soft  and  vessels  plough 
their  way  through  it  on  ordinarj^  tides,  but  the 
great  extent  of  the  bar  is  the  serious  condition. 
Between  the  24  feet  curves,  straight  through  this 
bar,  tliere  is  a  distance  of  24  sea  miles.  To  make  a 
^  channel  by  dredging  would  require  the  removal  of 

^  I)robably  10  1/2  to  13  million  cubic  yards  ;  and  it 

is  veiy  doubtful  if,  on  such  broad  extension  of 
water  and  in  such  soft  material,  a  channel  could  be 
maintained.  But  it  is  hoped  that  the  plan  now 
proposed  of  anchoring  five  lightships  in  the  line  of 
navigation,  and  in  the  direction  of  the  current,  and 
which  can  be  seen  from  each  other,  will  have  an 
effect  upon  the  bar  by  the  continued  movement  of 
deep  steamers  through  it.  The  examination  of  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata  Inferior  has  been  intrusted  by  the 
Government  to  the  Ministry   of   Marine,    which  is 


17 

making"  very   extensive  snrve^'s  and   examinations 
over  the  entire  area. 

The  estuary  at  this  point  is  46  miles  wide,  and 
iive  higii  towers  on  sliore  and  others  anchored 
within  "tile  area  to  be  surveyed  are  necessary  in 
order  to  cover  tliis  great  Punto  Indio  banlv. 


Tliese  are  the  general  johysical  conditions  of  the 
Eio  de  la  Plata  and  its  great  tributaries. 

The  very  important  project  of  making  a  deeper 
channel  of  access  to  the  Port  of  Bnenos  Aires  and 
enlarging  the  port,  to  give  it  not  only  a  greater  area 
and  more  facilities,  but  greater  ciepth.  in  the  en- 
larged part,  is  now  before  the  Government,  and 
the  plans  for  it — made  b}^  myself —have  been  ap- 
proved. There  are  alternative  projects  to  meet  the 
commercial  necessities  of  the  countrj^  ;  one  is  to 
deepen  the  present  Port  of  La  Plata  and  endow  it 
with  more  facilities,  where  vessels  draAving  2-1  or  25 
feet  may  come  in  and  go  out  at  any  stage  of  the 
tide  ;  or  to  build  a  deep  water  port,  wdtli  a  depth  of 
not  less  than  30  feet,  on  the  seaboard  outside  of  the 
difficult  conditions  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  A  con- 
cession has  been  granted,  and  the  ]:)roject  submitted 
to  the  National  Government,  for  an  artificial  port 
in  the  great  bay  of  Samboronbon,  which  is  nearly 
opposite  Montevideo,  and  another  concession  for  a 
port  at  Mar  Chiquita,  near  Mar  del  Plata  on  the 
ocean,  has  also  been  granted. 

In  addition  to  the  great  drainage  basin  of  the  La 
Plata,  there  is  further  south  the  large  rivers,  Rio 
Negro  and  Colorado,  which,  combined,  have  a 
drainage  area  of  464,000  square  miles.  The  channels 
are  not  susceptible  of  improvement  for  a  large  com- 
merce, but  they  will  in  the  future  furnish  water  for 
an  extensive  irrigation  and  steamboat  navigation. 

The  hj-diaulic  conditions  are  great,  but  the  moun- 
tains are  greater  and  have  exerted  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  the  continent,  not  only  its  climate  and 
its  running  waters,  but  upon  mankind.  On  these 
lofty  table  lands  lived  the  Incas  and  flourished 
their  great  empires.  Among  the  clouds  have  fought 
for  supremacy  the  Incas  troops  and  the  Spanish 
soldiers,  and  here,  too,  have  the  struggles  for  lil)erty 
taken  place  ;  here  Bolivar  and  San  Martin  led  their 


18 

troops  to  victory  and  continental  freedom  from  the 
domination  of  Spain. 

An  orographic  map  of  South  America  will 
show  Avhat  immense  areas  are  given  up  to  mountain 
ranges  and  lofty  summits.  In  their  widest  part 
the  Andes  are  ^(H)  miles  in  breadth.     Some  mighty 


r^.. 

\ 

1 

'A 

V 

■   ^4 

f 

"                                   1 

Orographic  Map  of  S.  America. 

force  seems  to  have  pushed  them  and  the  entire 
continental  line  eastward  and  massed  the  ranges 
into  a  complex  system  of  mountains,  towering  iso- 
lated peaks,  and  parallel,  transverse  and  interlaced 
ridges  without  number.  In  Bolivia,  not  far  north 
of  the  country  we  are  describing,  there  are  thirty- 
two  peaks  above  17,000  feet  high,  some  of  them 
reaching  over  21,000  feet  ;  and  in  Argentine  is  the 
lofty  Aconcagua  lifting  its  solitary  crown  to  an 
elevation  of  23,080  feet,"rival]ing  the  loftiest  moun- 
tains of  the  world.  And  Famatina,  in  the  Argen- 
tine Province  of  Rioja,  rises  to  20,(i80  feet,  and  the 
grand  mountain  Tupungato  22,015  feet  high. 

Between  Argentine  and  ('hili,  between  latitude 
23  and  3.")°,  the  tnountain  passes,  which  are  from 
10,000  to  14,000  feet  high,  are  blocked  with  snow 


19 

from  May  to  August,  and  tliey  are  swept  by  violent 
storms. 

Tlie  height  of  the  Passes,  all  the  way  from  7  to 
87°  south  lat.,  Northern  Peru  to  Southern  Argen- 
tine, shows  the  determination  of  Nature  to  oppose 
transit  by  man,  piling  up  in  his  pathway  these  al- 
most insurmountable  obstacles.  AVhen  it  is  con- 
sidered that  this  immense  barrier  covers  a  sixth 
part  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe,  its  influence 
upon  the  development  of  the  Continent  is  apparent. 
The  general  condition  as  far  as  civilization  is  con- 
cerned and  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  mankind 
are  forcibly  and  most  interestingly  described  by 
Col.  Churcii,  comparing  them  with  the  conditions 
in  North  America. 

"  Tlie  contrast  between  North  and  South  America 
is  remarkable.  Nature  was  in  her  kindest  mood 
when  she  created  the  former— gave  it  vast  and  fer- 
tile plains  ;  low  and  readily  transitable  mountain 
ranges  ;  extensive  systems  o"^!:'  navigable  lakes  and 
rivers,  the  latter  not  too  difficult  to  bridge  ;  great 
forests  of  the  most  useful  timber  ;  immense  mineral 
wealth,  including  an  abundance  of  coal  and  iron  ; 
a  coast  line  offering  numerous  excellent  harbours 
easily  accessible  from  the  interior,  and  a  temperate, 
inviting  climate  over  almost  its  whole  area.  It  is 
a  land  where  man  seems  to  live  with  Nature  on 
friendly  terms,  and  where  the  wave  of  humanity, 
as  it  rolls  westward,  encounters  no  obstacle  which 
it  cannot  readily  overcome. 

"  How  opposite  to  all  this  is  South  America  !  It 
lies  mostly  within  the  tropics.  Its  fertile  plans, 
except  th()se  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  are  diffi- 
cult of  access  ;  it  is  a  formidable  task  to  scale  and 
cross  its  mountain  ranges.  Its  rivers,  with  rare 
excpptions,  are  of  violent  flow  and  full  of  obstacles 
to  navigation,  and  its  largest  ones  not;  within  the 
limit  of  practical  engineering  to  bridge.  Its  vast 
forests  are  hard  to  work  and  Irequently  impenetra- 
ble. Its  mineral  wealth,  immense  in  nobler  metals, 
includes  but  little  coal  and  iron.  Its  coast  has  but 
few  good  harbors,  and  these  are  almost  all  mountain- 
locked.  Its  climate,  although  in  many  parts  de- 
lightful, is  uninviting  over  extensive  regions.  The 
forces  of  Nature  are  so  vigorous  that  man  can 
seldom  count  upon  the  unqualified  control  of  them, 
and,  in  general,  they  confer  generous  reward  only 
upon  w^ell-applied  and  persistent  energy." 

The  above  is  an  introdu(;tion  to  his  very  import- 
ant paper  read   before   the    Royal    Geographical 


!9 

Society  Feb.  25,  1901,  entitled  ''  Soutli  America, 
An  Outline  of  its  Physical jGeography,'^  a  papeT-  of 
T'C  printed  pages.     His  conclnsions  are  as  follows  : 

''My  analysis  shows  that,  in  general,  man  finds 
himself  confronted  by  severe  conditions  in  his 
struggle  with  nature  in  South  America.  Thus  far. 
however,  his  efforts  to  develop  and  ntilize  its  vast 
lesources  have  made  its  commercial  history  an 
epic.  The  thought  naturally  presents  itself,  that 
had  North  America  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  Latin 
race  in  the  Europeau  occupation  of  the  New  World, 
and  South  America  to  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the  former 
might  still  have  maintained  its  supremacy  ;  for 
its  more  rapid  progress  may  not  be  due  so  much  to 
racial  superiority  as  to  advantageous  geographical 
surroundings." 

Having  outlined  the  physical  conditions  and 
shown  their  importance  and  influence,  let  us  review 
very  briefly  the  history  of  man  among  these 
extraordinary  physical  features  of  a  great  conti- 
nent. 

Mountains  and  streams  and  soils  and  nature  in 
general  are  always  of  interest,  but  man,  his  his- 
tory, his  ethnology  and  biography  are  of  still 
greater  interest  to  us,  especially  when  human  life 
and  character  have  impressed  themselves  upon 
the  country  in  which  we  are  immediately  in- 
terested. 

I  am  tempted  strongly  to  take  you  on  an  excur- 
sion in  the  wdde  field  of  American  ethnology  and 
examine  the  races  and  tribes  that  were  found  by 
onr  first  ancestors  when  they  came  and  began  the 
development  of  both  North  and  South  America, 
but  time  compels  me  to  limit  myself  to  an  allusion 
only:  for  a  volume  Avould  be  reqnired  to  take  up 
the  subject  of  the  savage  tribes  alone  of  America, 
450  principal  groups,  and  2,000  if  we  separate  them 
by  dialects.  And  another  volume  would  be  needed 
to  treat  of  the  civilized  Aborigines  of  the  table 
lands  of  Mexico  and  Pern  ;  of  the  Toltecs  and 
Astecs  and  of  Quetzalcoatl  and  the  Incas ;—  the 
pontifices  who  ruled  over  a  vast  population  cover- 
ing 40  degrees  of  latitude  of  South  America  from 
Northern  Argentine  to  the  Antilles.  The  barbar- 
ism of  the  savage  and  the  civilization  of  the  races 
of  the  table  lands  have  nearly  disappeared.  You 
would  have  no  better  knowledge  of  that  vast  horde 
of  wandering  tribes  that  infested  the  great  plains 
of  the  Pampas  if  I   should  mention   their  names. 


2^ 

vy 

Some  few  still  exist;  the  census  gives  less  than! 
20,000  as  the  totiiLoi  JndiLiniL  stiLLexistiii^LiiLALi 
gen!Tn£.  Once  numerous  and  brave,  only  about  a 
dozen  remain  of  the  Paraguas— tlie  descendants  of 
the  Agnas— and  of  the  Tobas  and  Cliini])is,  who 
later  "occupied  their  country,  a,  remnant  only 
exists. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  the  history  and  the 
influence  of  the  Incas  ;  they  have  been  described  in 
the  histories  to  be  found  in  every  library  of  the 
land.  But  it  may  not  be  generally  known  that, 
from  the  lirst  arrival  of  the  Spanish  adventurers  to 
the  successful  end  of  the  great  struggle  for  liberty 
in  South  America,  there  was  always  dissatisfaction, 
unrest  and  hatred  of  the  conquering  race.  The 
seeds  were  sown  in  bloodshed,  in  the  persecution  by 
the  Inquisition  and  in  false  commercial  and  govern- 
ing methods  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  mother 
countries.  The  diflference  between  North  and  South 
America  in  this  respect  was  very  great. 

The  symptoms  of  resistance  against  Spanish 
domination  showed  themselves  in  the  dawn  of  thn 
history  of  South  America.  Frequently  the  Indian 
tribes  attempted  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  some 
more  than  usually  severe  and  cruel  oppressor. 
In  the  early  days'^of  the  18th  century  the  revolu- 
tion of  the'Tupac-Amare  was  really  a  war  of  races 
rather  than  a  political  revolution,  as  it  had  for  its 
principal  purpose  the  extermination  of  the  Spanish. 
In  \"enezuela  in  1711  this  same  hatred  showed  it- 
self in  the  proclamation  of  a  Mulatto  as  King  of 
the  Mestizos.  Half  a  century  later  the  seed  sown 
by  Antequera  bore  fruit  in  New  Granada,  when  an 
army  of  20,000  was  raised  and  commanded  by 
Berber. 

It  is  a  significant  and  curious  fact  in  the  histoiy 
of  South  America  that,  during  the  entire  ISth  cen- 
tury, the  same  causes  were  producing  the  same 
effects  among  people  far  separated  from  each  other 
and  of  a  character  entirely  distinct,  scattered  from 
the  banks  of  the  Paraguay  River  to  the  Colombian 
Mountains. 

Those  effects  may  have  been  the  precursors  of 
that  great  revolutionary  movement  that  created  our 
great  Republic  and  drove  the  Bourbons  from  the 
throne  of  France  and,  later,  shook  to  the  centre  the 
monarchical  fabric  of  Spain  herself. 

We  may,  therefore,  say  that  the  struggle  and  the 
preparation  of  the  ground  for  civil  and  religious 
libertv   began   earlier  in    South   America  than  in 


22 

North  America.  In  the  British  Colonies  there  was 
no  strong  sentiment  against  foreign  rule  until  the 
imposition  of  the  taxes  required  to  furnish  George 
the  Third  with  revenue  to  pay  off  his  debt  of  148 
million  pounds  sterling.  Even  Washington,  in 
July,  1775,  when  he  took  command  of  the  Conti- 
nental army,  declared  that  the  idea  of  independ- 
ence was  repugnant  to  him.  Only  later,  and  soon, 
when  the  war  was  suddenly  upon  the  Colonies,  did 
events  hasten  and  make  inevitable  the  separation 
from  the  Mother  Country. 

It  would  be  a  subject  of  great  interest  to  enter 
upon,-  the  three  great  leaders  and  heroes  of  Ameri- 
can revolutions — 

Washington — Bolivar— San  Martin, 

a  triumvirate  of  liberators. 

Of  the  two  former  you  already  know  nuich,  pos- 
sibly of  the  latter,  but  you  may  not  know  that  it 
was  by  his  patriotism  and  generalship  that  the 
whole  of  southern  South  America  was  freed  from 
the  yoke  of  Spain— Agentine,  Cliili,  Peru  and 
Bolivia.  His  biography  is  a  romance  of  most  ab- 
goi'bing  interest. 


Statue  of  San  Martin. 


Born  1778,    in   Argentine,    in  Japeyu,  his  early 
education  in  Buenos  Aires,     completed  in  Spain  ; 


23 

served  witli  distinction  and  great  bravery  in  the 
wars  of  Spain.  Early  lie  was  imbued  with  the 
doctrine  of  liberty  for  his  native  country  ;  spent  a 
3'ear  in  Great  Britain  in  1811,  forming  associations 
and  a  secret  league  devoted  to  the  liberation 
of  Argentine.  Landed  in  Buenos  Aires  in  1.S12  ; 
soon  in  command  of  a  regiment  of  Grenadiers  ; 
selected  soldier  by  soldier,  oflicer  by  officer,  ini- 
posed  the  most  rigid  discipline,  forming  so  a  rudi- 
mentary school  for  a  generation  of  heroes  that  fol- 
lowed him,  and  producing  nineteen  generals  and 
nearly  all  the  great  men  of  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence. Placed  in  command  of  the  army  to  reor- 
ganize it  he  marched  to  Mendoza,  the  nearest  point 
to  the  Andes  ;  and,  imbued  with  the  idea  that  no 
liberty  would  be  secure  for  his  country  until  the 
Spanish  armies  were  beaten  and  expelled  from 
Chili,  Peru  and  Bolivia  and  the  whole  of  South 
America,  he  formed  his  plans  for  an  invasion  of 
Chili.  He  was  the  very  incarnation  of  determined 
patriotism  ;  nothing,  not  even  revolutions  and  dis- 
cord behind  him  in  his  own  country,  could  deter 
him  from  his  great  work.  At  this  moment  Napo- 
leon fell,  and  Spain  prepared  an  expedition  of  15.000 
men  destined  for  the  Riode  la  Plata.  In  Chili  and 
Pern  the  Royalists  weie  victorious  ;  but  in  Argen- 
tine on  the  9th  day  of  July,  1816,  at  Tiicuman,  the 
declaration  of  independence  was  i)roclaiined,  which, 
like  our  own,  is  sacred  in  the  heart  of  every  Argen- 
tine. 

In  the  midst  of  these  great  and  momentous  events, 
San  Martin  recruited  and  drilled  and  clothed  and 
provisioned  his  little  army  destined  to  conquer  a 
continent,  to  scale  high  mountain  passes  and  pour 
clown  upon  an  enemy  largely  ontnumbering  his  own. 
His  plans  were  known  only  to  himself,  and  when 
asked  by  those  high  in  authority  what  they  were, 
he  refused  to  tell  and  said  no  one  should  know  them  ; 
and  should  his  pillow  get  an  idea  of  his  plans,  he 
would  cast  ir,  into  the  lire.  He  ostensibly  made 
roads  over  certain  passes  and,  when  all  was  ready, 
led  his  army  over  another  and  very  different  pass 
and  came  down  upon  his  foe  and  defeated  him  in 
Chacabuco  ;  and  again  on  the  plains  of  Maipu, 
routing  the  enemy  completely  and  assuring  the  in- 
dependence of  Chili.  Then,  though  anarchy  was 
reigning  in  Argentine  and  his  Government  was 
calling  upon  him  to  return,  his  hxed  and  irresistible 
purpose  of  dealing  the  hnal  blow  to  Spanish  author- 
ity  in   Peru   pushed   him   forward.     With  a  fleet 


24 


hastily  gotten  together  and  commanded  by  Lord 
Cochrane,  and  with  English  and  II.  S.  officers  in 
command  of  the  ships,  he  sailed  from  Valparaiso 
with  his  troops  up  the  coast  in  December,  1818.  He 
had  only  4,430  men,  Argentines  and  Chileans.  The 
Viceroy  of  Pern  had  23,000  soldiers  awaiting  this 


View  iu  the  Cordilleras. 

little  army  On  Jnly  28,  1821,  as  a  result  of  his 
campaign,  theindei)endenceof  Pern  was  proclaimed 
in  Lima  and  San  Martin  made  dictator.  In  the 
meantime  General  Bolivar,  after  liberating  Vene- 
zuela and  Colombia,  reached  Quito  and  his  forces, 
united  with  an  Argentine  division,  routed  the  Span- 
ish ai-my  in  the  battle  of  Pichincha  ;  and  then  he 
hastened  on  to  Guayaquil,  anxious  to  finish  by  him- 
self the  Peruvian  Campaign.  Here  let  me  quote  a 
paragraph  from  the  history  of  Argentine  by  the 
Hon!  Martin  Garcia  Merou,  the  Argentine  Minister 
at  Washington. 

"  There  he  went  to  find  San  Martin,  whose  purity 
of  character  and  noble  unselfishness  formed  a  marked 
contrast  with  the  impetuous  ambitions  of  his  glori- 
ous rival.  The  two  liberators  had  a  conference  July 
26,  1822,  the  details  of  which  were  kept  secret  ;  but 
it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  San  Martin  compre- 
hended that,  in  order  toaccomplishSouth  American 
independence  and  avoid  the  scandal  to  the  world  of 
a  break  with  Bolivar,  caused  by  the  latter  s  thirst  for 
glory,  it  would  be  l3est  for  him  to  dejDart  from  a 
scene  where  his  great  presence  had  no  i:)lace." 


25 


The  story  of  seU'-Mbnpoation  and  the  rest  of  his 
life  is  told  in  a  word.  lie  resii>ned  the  dictatorship 
of  Peru  ;  passed  to  Chili,  to  Mendoza,  to  Buenos 
Aires,  to  Europe,  where  he  resided  four  years  in 
Brussels  on  a  very  modest  pension.  Once  more,  in 
18^29,  he  returned  to  the  La  Plata,  stoppiu"-'  at 
Montevideo,  hut  learning-  that  anarcliy  ])revaile(l  in 
his  own  country  and  deaf  to  the  entreaties  of  his 
friends  to  come  to  their  help,  he  took  a  steamer 
back  to  Europe,  saying  "No,  General  San  Martin 
will  never  spill  the*  blood  of  liis  fellow  citizens  ;  he 
will  draw  the  sword  only  against  the  enemies  of 
America."  And,  without  even  seeing  Buenos  Aires, 
he  sailed  for  the  last  time  to  his  voluntary  exile, 
dying  suddenly  August  19,  1850.  He  was  free  from 
those  theatrical  qualities  which  appeal  to  the  mul- 
titude. In  this  great  character  predominated  those 
moralqualities  which  entitle  San  Martin  to  a  i)rom- 
inent  place  in  South  American  history,  Inflexible 
in  the  discharge  of  duty,  a  rigid  disciplinarian, 
everything  was  subordinated  to  the  high  jnission  to 
which  he  had  devoted  himself,  and  he  never  sacri- 
ficed his  cause  to  ambitious  or  personal  vain  glory. 
He  loas  the  incarnation  of  an  idea.  Ilis  modesty, 
his  pure  and  elevated  character,  the  simplicity  pi 
his  life  and  the  nobility  of  his  princii)les  give  him 
rightfidly  a]K)sition  by  the  side  of  the  great  heroes 
of  historv. 


Plaza  Victoria  and  Statue  of  Belgrano. 

In  the  vicissitudes  of  the  epoch  und<'r  considera- 
tion, when  European  wars  and  the  disasters  of 
nations  reflected  themselves  directly  and  indirectly 


26 

upon  the  people  of  the  River  Plate  and  led  slowly 
to  the  formation  of  the  Republics  of  Uruguay, 
Argentine  and  Paraguay,  many  notable  and  great 
men  as  well  as  despots  and  bloody  tyrants  and 
l)olitical  demagogues  appeared  upon  the  scene  and 
the  pages  of  history.  No  name  more  illustrious, 
contemporaneous  with  San  Martin,  is  seen  in  the 
records  of  that  time,  more  brilliant  and  more  im- 
portant in  results,  than  that  of  General  Belgrano. 
His  generalsliip,  diplomncy,  statemansliip  and  ex- 
alted patriotism  give  him  a  most  distinguished 
position  in  the  annals  of  independence  :  as  General 
Mitre  has  well  said  in  the  opening  sentence  of  his 
History  of  Belgrano  :  "This  book  is  at  the  same 
time  the  biograj^hy  of  a  man  and  the  history  of  an 
epoch.''  His  statue  is  before  us  as  we  stand  in  the 
archway  of  the  National  Government  Building  and 
look  out  upon  the  beautiful  Plaza  Victoria.  General 
Belgrano  was  really  the  author  of  the  national  Hag. 
The  white  and  the  blue  are  the  colors  of  the  Patric- 
ios,  the  rngiuient  of  native  Ameri)cans  at  the  time 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  V^iceroy,  on  the 
2nth  of  May,  lolO. 

Coming  to  later  times,  new  and  illustrious  names 
a[)pear, — men  who  were  true  patriots,  who  would 
not  stoop  to  fraud  or  unbecoming  jDolitical  act, 
and  who,  amidst  the  errors  of  their  time  and 
the  temptations  to  do  evil,  came  out  pure  as  gold 
tried  in  the  lire.  One  of  these  men  is  the  author  of 
the  history  of  Belgrano, — General  Mitre, — still 
living, — the  general  who  led  the  forces  of  Buenos 
Aires  in  the  last  struggle  for  a  United 
Republic,  and  who  maj^  be  called  the  Father  of  his 
country — for  under  his  wise  governorship,  his 
skilful  generalship  and  wisdom  as  President,  Sena- 
tor and  a  public  man  always  before  the  people,  the 
country  has  been  strong,  united,  pros^Derous  and 
peaceful. 

The  sincerity  of  his  motives,  the  purity  of  his 
life,  public  and  private,  his  self-abnegation,  his 
rigid  honesty,  his  lofty  ideas  of  public  office,  ad- 
ministering it  always  as  a  public  trust,  his  modest 
and  simple  life,  allexplains  why  the  entire  nation 
recently  honored  his  SOth  birthday,  and  why  the 
statesmen  of  the  Re[)ublic  sit  at  his  feet  to  learn, 
and  to  follow  his  wise  counsel. 

I  have  refrained  from  developing  ^  the 
political  history  of  the  Republic,  or  giving 
its  earlier  history — the  discovery  of  the  River 
Plate— by  de  Solis,    in   1515,  giving   the  name   of 


liis  second  offic^er.  Martin  (Turcin,  to  tlie  now  well- 
known  island  at  the  head  of  the  Estuary,  or  the 
discovery  in  1526  of  the  Paranji  River,  by  Sebas- 
tian Cabot,  and  all  the  subsequent  and  checkered 
history  ol"  the  Spanish  Portu<^ese  rule  in  the  River 
Plate  countries.  That  they  liave  passed  throu^-h 
many  trying  periods,  when  the  patriotism  of  the 
leaders  has  been  severely  tested,  goes  withont  say- 
ing. The  heterogeneons  elements,  the  and:)itions 
of  designing  men,  the  lack  of  integrity  in  the  early 
days  of  independence  and  the  opportuinties  which 
selfish  men  had  easily  in  their  hands  to  enrich  and 
raise  themselves  in  political  station,  gave  varied 
and  not  always  envious  political  changes  to  decades 
of  x-\rgentine  history,  not  necessary  to  inflict  upon 
yon  now.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  country  has 
passed  safely  throngh  those  terrible  ordeals.  The 
jn-inciples  of  the  9tli  of  Jnly,  1816,  in  the  Procla- 
mation of  Independence,  and  those  laid  down  May 
25,  ]t^53,  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Prov- 
riTces,  form  the  basis  of  the  Republic— 14  Provinces 
(States)  and  10  Gobernaciones  (Territories), — prin- 
ciples which  all  hold  sacred  and  which  are  almost 
exactly  similar  to  our  own. 

The  world,  and  especiall}^  its  republics,  owe  more 
to  Buenos  Aires  than  is  generally  known  or  recog- 
nized. The  l)rief  but  eloquent  summary  of  this 
period  of  its  history  by  General  Mitre  shows  how 
great  has  been  its  intluence  in  the  development  of 
American  national  life. 

•'On  the  same  day  when  the  Chieftain  Ramirez 
was  routed  and  slain,  and  that  Varrera  fled,  seek- 
ing the  sepulchre  of  his  brethren,  and  the 
farmers  of  Salta  rose  en  masse  to  obey  the  order  of 
the  dying  Guemes,  General  San  Martin,  on  the  tenth 
of  July,  1821,  was  triumphantly  entering  Lima  ; 
and  Bolivar,  the  conqueror  of  the  north  of  Ecua- 
dor, was  going  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  Colom- 
bia, to  meet  the  Argentine  liberator  in  order  to 
seal  the  independence  of  the  New  World,  already 
iirevocably  assured  by  the  occupation  of  Lower 
Peru,  liberated  by  San  Martin. 

•'  Here  ends  the  history  of  the  independence  of 
the  Argentine  Republic.  If  she  was  the  precursor 
in  chronological  order,  she  was  also  the  flrst  to  give 
the  signal  for  the  great  insurrection,  which  eman- 
cipated the  Spanish-American  Colonies  from  tlie 
Mother  Country.  It  conquered  its  independence 
by  its  own  efforts  and  without  foreign  help:  it 
fought  eleven   consecutive  years;   it   expelled   its 


28 

enemies  from  its  territory,  taking  possession  of 
their  fortitied  places  and  conquering  tlieir  squad- 
rons upon  the  seas;  it  hurled  back  '  triumphantly 
upon  the  land  the  nine  Royalist  invasions  which 
endeavored  to  subjugate  it.  Its  revolution  is  the 
only  one  which  was  not  overcome,  while  all  the 
others  were,  from  Chili  to  Mexico. 

"  Devoured  by  anarchy,  it  struggled  with  it  arm 
to  arm,  and  at  the  same  time  carried  its  liberating 
arms  to  Paraguay,  to  the  Banda-Oriental,  to  Peru, 
upper  and  lower,  audits  banners  arrived  victorious 
at  the  boundaries  of  Ecuador  in  the  struggle  for 
the  independence  of  Colombia. 

"Simultaneously  its  internal  revolution  took 
form,  and,  upon  concluding  its  second  evolution 
within  its  own  organic  elements, the  United  Prov 
inces  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  now  in  peace  and  reor- 
ganized according  to  the  plan  of  an  embryonic  feder- 
ation, which  was  to  be  the  law  of  the  Constitution 
in  the  future,  had  sketched  out  their  political  ma]), 
tracing  upon  it  with  the  sword  of  independence  the 
inviolable  line  of  its  frontiers. 

"It  only  remained  for  Jujuy,  emancipated  from 
Salta,  to  resume  its  federal  autonomy,  and  to  rise 
above  tile  horizon  the  fourteenth  star  of  this  new 
National  constellation.  The  Spanish  power  con- 
quered, disorder  dominated,  and  its  organic  ele- 
ments reorganized  and  reconstituted,  the  Argentine 
Republic,  which,  even  in  the  midst  of  anarchy,  had 
contributed  so  much  to  secure  its  own  independ- 
ence and  that  of  other  South  American  nations,  was 
about  to  initiate  a  new  propaganda  of  principles, 
which,  like  its  armies,  should  spread  over  the 
entire  South  America. 

"Buenos  Aires  was  rhe  initiator  and  the  herald 
of  this  new  Pacific  development.  This  province 
departed  from  its  primitive  jdan  of  organization 
and  gave  up  the  impossible  task  of  uniting  the 
nation  politically  by  means  of  revolutionary  con- 
gresses and  governments  of  irresponsible  dictators, 
wdiich  had  shown  themselves  impotent  to  constitute 
and  to  unify  the  country.  Concentrating  itself 
within  its  own  organic  forces,  it  put  in  practice  the 
idea  of  creating  the  type  of  a  federal  state  arranged 
on  a  constitutional  plan,  which  should  serve  as  a 
model  to  other  provinces  in  the  future.  This 
initiation  took  place  under  the  administration  of 
General  Martin  Rodriguez. 

"  General  Rodriguez  called  to  his  council,  in  order 
to  realize  the  w^ork  of  reorganization,  first,  Bernardi- 


29 

no  Rivndavia  nnd  then  Manuel  Jose  Garcia.  These 
two  statesmen  carried  it  to  a  successful  conclusion, 
with  the  co-operation  of  the  same  men  who  had 
fomented  and  sustained  the  revolution.  Assuring 
iudependence  and  the  re-estal)lishment  of  order, 
they  inangnrated  the  republican  system  in  Bnenos 
Aires,  bivaking  forever  wath  colonial  traditions  ; 
and  they  laid  the  foundations  of  a  real  republican 
government  which  responded  truly  to  liberty  and 
progress.  A  limited  legislative  power  was  created, 
renewable  on  the  base  of  universal  and  direct 
suffrage.  The  powers  of  the  Executive  were  deter- 
mined" by  its  duration  and  making  it  responsible. 
Institutions  of  credit  were  established,  and  im- 
migration and  popular  education  were  promoted. 
The  iiK'ume  and  the  estimate  of  expenses  were  for 
the  first  time  organized.  The  sciences  and  the  arts 
were  cultivated,  absolute  amnesty  proclaimed  and 
public  opinion  was  given  participation  in  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  an  extensive  reform  w-as  carried  out 
in  all  political  and  social  institutions.  In  this 
manner  Avas  created  the  nucleus  of  Argentine, 
creating  the  powder  of  a  republican  federal  State 
and  making  possible  its  organization  in  the  fu- 
ture." 

Some  eloquent  words  s])oken  by  General  Mitre  at 
the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  Belgrano,  in  the 
Plaza  Victoria  in  1873  will  illustrate  the  influ- 
ence of  a  great  patriot  upon  his  country,  and  will 
reveal  the  character  of  a  patriotic  people,  who  were 
taught  and  led  by  such  men  as  General  Belgrano. 

''The  author  of  this  book  (History  of  Belgrano) 
in  pronouncing  the  judgment  of  posterity  before 
the  monument,  said  with  a  legitimate  pride,  and 
with  republican  humility,  that  it  could  be  assured 
that  never  had  a  glory  more  pure  or  more  modest 
been  modelled  in  the  bronze  of  immortality. 

"Thew^ar,  he  added,  was  a  simple  accident  in 
the  laborious  career  of  the  precursor  of  our  inde- 
pendence and  the  founder  of  our  first  public 
schools,  Avhich,  in  their  turn,  taught  lessons  from 
the  revolution  and  left  it  as  a,  legacy  to  posterity. 
He  accepted  the  strife  like  a  task  placed  upon  a 
laborer,  and  he  accomplished  it  Avith  fortitude, 
wath  abnegation  and  with  humility,  as  well  in 
victory  as  in  defeat,  without  withdrawing  from  any 
sacrifices  or  asking  for  himself  the  crown  of  the 
conqueror. 


80 

''  General  Belgrano  is  one  of  those  historical  fig- 
ures, who,  either  with  a  flag  or  a  sword,  can  also  be 
represented  with  the  pen  of  the  writer,  or  with  the 
book  of  law  in  hand,  or  blessing  with  both  the 
head  of  the  cliild  reading  its  first  primer  ;  because 
he  was  a  man  of  action  and  a  man  of  thought,  and 
because  while  he  fought  for  liis  beliefs,  he  scattered 
along  the  furrow  of  life  fructifying  seeds  of  in- 
struction and  virtue. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  of  the  genins  of  San  Martin, 
nor  a  statistician  of  the  breadth  of  Bieytes,  nor  a 
jurisconsult  of  the  -knowdedge  of  Castro,  nor  an 
orator  of  the  consequence  of  Castelli,  nor  a  writer 
of  the  temper  of  Monteaguedo,  nor  a  thinker  of  the 
depth  of  Moreno,  nor  a  politician  of  the  character 
of  Rivadavia,  all  his  contemporaries,  his  com- 
panions, his  friends  of  the  epoch  of  the  revolution  ; 
but  he  had  all  ol'  their  qualities  in  tlie  midst  of  a 
memorable  epoch,  Avith  a  sonl  grand  and  pnre  and 
a  character  elevated  and  simple  ;  and  for  these 
reasons  he  is  one  of  our  great  meii  of  the  past,  and 
of  the  present,  as  he  will  be  of  all  future  genera- 
tions. 

"  His  greatness,  principally  civic  and  moral,  <lid 
not  result  from  a  superiority  of  genius  over  the 
common  level,  nor  is  it  exclusively  nnited  to  the 
grand  political  and  military  cause  in  which  he  Avas 
a  modest  actor. 

"•  It  consists  in  the  harmonious  union  of  his  high 
moral  qualities,  which  did  not  pretend  to  exalt 
themselves  before  public  rights  ;  in  the  equilib- 
rium of  soul,  which  did  not  leave  itself  to  be  de- 
graded by  pride,  nor  to  be  a  vassal  to  egotism  ;  in 
the  authority  with  which  he  commanded  ;  in  the 
humility  with  which  he  o-be,y»ed  ;^iai  all  of  which 
he  was  the  representative  of  the  generous  aspira- 
tions of  all  times,  and  which  aspirations  he  served 
in  the  name  and  interest  of  all,  thus  extending  his 
life  to  posterity,  in  which  he  was  a  humble  and 
persevering  apostle,  combatant  and  laborer ;  and 
he  moistened  with  his  swvat  the  field  of  human 
labor,  in  battles,  in  the  councils  of  government  and 
in  the  pages  of  literature,  and  even  on  the  rustic 
bench  of  the  primary  school,  dying  in  obscurity 
and  poverty. 

"  He  is  an  ideal  type  of  the  modest  hero  of  de- 
mocracy, which  does  not  shine  forth  as  a  meteor 
but  brilliant  as  a  star,  unquenchable  in  the  horizon 
of  the  country,  as  shine  the  names  of  Washington, 
William  Tell,  William  of  Orange,    Hampden   and 


81 

Lincoln,  who  were  not  great  geniuses,  and  who  in 
tlie  name  and  in  representation  of  the  good  and 
memorable  of  all  times  and  all  countries,  liave 
been  acclaimed  great  with  the  apphiuse  of  human 
conscience  and  of  universal  morality." 

The  orator,  in  thus  formulating  the  history  and 
judgment  in  the  presence  of  the  Statue,  saluted 
it  saying :  '  General  Belgrano,  in  the  name  of  all 
present  who  honor  thee  at  this  time,  from  the  La 
Plata  to  the  Andes,  in  the  name  of  future  genera- 
tions which  bow  themselves  with  respect  and  sym- 
pathy before  thy  noble  image,  I,  thine  humble 
historian  and  one  of  thy  grateful  sojis,  salute  thee, 
great  and  Father  of  our  Country,  the  precursor  of 
our  independence,  the  genius  of  labor  and  of  all 
moral  and  civic  virtues,  conqueror  of  Tucuman, 
Salta  and  Piedras,  conquered  at  Vilcapugio  and 
Ayohuma,  you  will  live  in  the  memory  and  in  the 
heart  of  men  as  long  as  the  Argentine  flag  shall 
wave  in  the  breeze!^  and  while  the  name  of  our 
country  pronounced  by  millions  of  free  citizens, 
shall  make  thy  bronze  vibrate  with  their  acclama- 
tions'. Of  him  it  can  be  said,  as  of  Hampden,  'he 
was  great  without  pretending  it  ;  he  found  glory 
without  seeking  it  and  in  the  pathway  of  duty.'  " 
I  stated  in  my  remarks  at  Diisseldorf  that  the 
country  was  ambitious  and  determined  to  fulfil  its 
destiny  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  I  cannot 
close  the  political  subject  of  my  lecture  without 
confirming  this  statement  by  the  w^ords  found  at 
the  close  of  Mr.  Merou's  "history  of  Argentine, 
which  he  brings  down  to  1870. 

"The  Argentine  Republic  came  out  of  this  cam- 
paign (1870,  with  the  dictator  and  tyrant  of  Para- 
guay) strengthen<^l:incl|inite(l.  The  sentiment  of 
NatlonalitJ^  (^i^^v!nii&rhy  common  sacrifices,  was 
from  that  time  forth  an  indestructible  fact  and  a 
promise  of  days  of  prosperity  and  greatness,  of  a 
country  united,  free  and  pow^erful.  We  can  con- 
template the  problems  of  the  future  with  tran- 
quility, consecrating  ourselves  with  all  of  our  in 
telligence  and  forces  to  build  up  with  a  broad  and 
generous  spirit  and  a  disinterested  love  for  truth 
and  justice  (following  the  traditions  received  from 
our  forefathers  and  realizing  their  noble  ideals), 
one  of  the  greatest,  most  prosperous  and  most  il- 
lustrious Nations  of  the  Earth." 

The  U.  S.  Government  at  a  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  South  America  (1818)  i^resented  fearlessly 
and  iiVmly  its  pronounced  views,  and  prevented  a 


32 

coalition  of  European  powers  for  the  purpose  of 
compelling-  the  American  colonies  of  Spain  to  re- 
turu,  and  thus  re-establisli  Spanisli  domination  in 
South  and  Central  America  and  Mexico.  Much  to 
the  surprise  of  the  British  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  our  Minister,  Mr  Rush,  boldly  combat  ted 
the  proposition  by  the  statement  that  the  decided 
views  of  his  Government  were,  that  the  American 
Colonies  of  Spain  should  be  completely  emanci- 
pated from  the  motlier  country,  and  that  in  its 
opinion  there  could  be  no  other  outcome  of  the 
struggle  which  Bolivar  and  San  Martin  were  en- 
gaged in  on  the  Andean  plains. 

As  a  concession  to  the  American  Minister,  Lord 
Castleraugh,  the  British  Premier  stated  that  Buenos 
Aires  (Argentine)  among  all  the  insurrectionary 
colonies  had  given  the  best  proof  of  its  capacity 
to  exist  as  an  independent  nation,  and  its  com- 
merce had  the  greatest  imi^ortance  at  the  time,  and 
the  best  promise  for  the  future.  Our  Minister  in 
Paris,Mr.  Gallatin, aided  by  Lafayette,™  1819  used 
his  influence  for  the  acknowledgment 'of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  American  Colonies  of  Spain.  Our 
Government  in  1818  was  the  first  power  of  the  world 
to  recognize  Argentine  as  a  Nation,  by  granting  an 
"exequatur"  to  a  Consul  General  appointed  by 
that  Government.  This  same  country  having 
pioven  by  its  works  its  right  to  exist,  now 
stretches  out  the  hand  to  its  benefactor  of  nearly 
a  century  ago,  and  asks  the  interchange  of  pro- 
ducts and  its  co-operation  in  its  efforts  to  fulfill  its 
high  destiny  among  the  nations. 

It  is  pertinent  here  to  remark  that  the  principle 
enunciated  in  1818,  five  years  before  the  message 
of  President  Monroe,  proclaiming  the  "Monroe 
Doctrine "  with  such  quiet  but  firm  determin- 
ation, viz.:  that  America  is  and  shall  be  the 
undisturbed  home  of  Americans,  has  persisted 
until  the  present  day,  and  if  attempts  have  been 
made  at  any  time  to  impair  the  sovereignty  of 
any  American  nation,  there  has  always  been  a 
Grant  or  a  Cleveland  to  frustrate  them.  President 
Roosevelt  has  recently  clearly  defined  this  much 
misunderstood  principle,  or  so-called  "  Monroe 
Doctrine,"  when  he  said  :  "The  nations  now  ex- 
isting on  the  Western  Continent  must  be  left  to 
work  out  their  destinies  among  themselves,  "  and 
"America,  North  and  South,  is  no  longer  to  be 
regarded  as  the  colonizing  ground  of  any  European 
power."     Thus,  it  has  happened  that  while  the 


11         vy  I  »  I  V  L.  IX  >^  I    I     I         IJ 

33  ^.^^_— -- 

Dark  Continent  lias  been  partitioned  among  these 
powers,  no  hand  as  yet  lias  been  lai<I  upon  any  part 
of  America. 

A  correct  interpretation  of  this  "  Doctrine  "  is 
absolutely  essential  to  a  complete  understanding 
and  cordial  accord  between  us  and  the  other  coun- 
tries of  North  and  South  America. 

An  incorrect  knowledge  of  it,  particularly 
among  the  South  American  people,  has  engendered 
a  popular  antagonism  to  it  as  being  unworthy  of 
themselves  to  accept  without  their  consent  the 
suzerainty,  or  tutelage,  of  the  United  States,  espec- 
ially as  their  social  and  commercial  affiliations  are 
witii  European  countries  from  whom  our  Govern- 
ment has  politically  protected  these  republics  for 
nearly  a  century. 

Truth  and  fairness  required  the  statement  here 
that  Lord  Castlereaugh  in  1818  did  not  express  the 
real  view  of  the  British  people  and  that  in  1823, 
the  very  year  of  President  Monroe's  Message- 
Canning  who  was  then  Foreign  Minister  quietly 
opposed  the  ''  Holy  Alliance,"  which  was  headed 
by  Alexander  of  Russia,  supported  by  France  and 
Germany,  and  which  had  for  its  object  the  Coer- 
cion of  the  Spanish  American  Republics. 

Canning  desired  their  independence  and  sug- 
gested to  President  Monroe  that  the  prononcement 
would  come  better  from  him  than  from  Great 
Britain,  viz  :  ''  There  is  to  be  no  interference  by 
European  potentates  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere"  and  Canning  promised  to 
support  President  Monroe— who  subsequently 
wrote  to  our  Minister  in  Paris  quoting  Canning's 
despatch  and  saying  he  should  follow  his  advice, 
but  adding  "  but  what  will  happen  if  Canning  is 
not  as  good  as  his  word." 

All  of  which  is  a  very  interesting  side  light  upon 
the  origin  of  the  ''Monroe  Doctrine". 

Let  us  now  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  present 
Argentine,  a  country  one-third  the  size  of  the 
"United  States;  a  climate  salubrious  and  comfortable; 
of  immense  plains  formed  by  nature,  as  I  have  al- 
ready shown,  for  the  use  of  man— plains  where 
the  railroads  find  no  natural  obstacles  worth  men- 
tioning in  the  way  of  their  good  alignment  and 
construction  ;  where  we  have,  I  think,  the  longest 
railroad  tangent  in  the  world  (186  miles),  between 
Junin  and  La  Cautiva,  on  the  Pacific  Railroad; 
plains  covered  with  the  cattle  of  the  great  festancias, 


34 

thousands  of  them  of  the  best  breeds  in  one  estan- 
cia,  and  sheep  by  the  millions,  and  great  fields  of 
wheat,  corn  and  linseed,  the  principal  agricultural 
products  of  the  country.  An  "estancia"  might  be 
called  a  "  ranch  "  on  the  great  plains  of  our  West- 
ern States.  Their  size  varies  from  about  three 
thousand  acres  to  seven  hundred  thousand  acres  ; 
probably  twenty-live  thousand  acres  might  be  con- 
sidered an  average  size. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  business  of  cattle 
raising  requires  expert  men  similar  to  our  cow- 
.  boys  ;  they  are  called  "  ganchos."  They  are  fear- 
less riders  and  masters  of  their  trade.  The  horses 
they  ride  are  generally  rather  undersized,  but  wiry 
and  of  great  endurance.  They  are  much  like  the 
best  class  of  Mexican  horses. 

As  the  cattle  roam  over  great  ranges,  which  are 
unfenced,  it  is  necessary  to  brand  them,  as  we  also 
do  on  our  great  plains. 

The  homes  of  the  ganchos  on  the  estancias  are 
not  elegant,  to  say  the  least,  but  in  ^hA  compara- 
tively mild  climate  of  Argentine  they  do  not  need 
as  much  protection  from  the  weather  as  in  many  oi 
our  cattle  districts  of  the  far  West.  They  are  a 
contented  people,  and  while  they  do  not  have  the 
facilities  for  entertainment  which  a  city  popula- 
tion has,  they  nevertheless  have  their  own  fun  on 
feast  days  and  whenever  their  arduous  and  roaming 
life  will  permit. 

As  might  be  expected  of  a  country  stretching 
through  so  many  degrees  of  latitude  and  rising 
along  the  circles  of  longitude  from  the  level  of  the 
sea  to  the  highest  Andes,  there  is  a  great  variety  of 
climate  and  generally  an  abundant  rainfall.  Buenos 
Aires  is  on  the  same  parallel  south  of  the  Equator 
as  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  is  north  of  it. 
Snow  is  almost  unknown,  and  scarcely  ever  is  ice 
or  frost  seen.  The  climate  in  the  summer  is  tem- 
pered with  the  great  body  of  water  of  the  River 
Plate. 

The  rainiaU-of-&fteftos-Aires  averages  j5|_inches 
per  annum,  about  equal  to  that  of  theT^orthern 
States  of  the  United  States.  At  Asuncion,  Para- 
guay,  it  is  53  inches,  about  equal  to  that  of  New 
Orleans.  The  temperature  is  remarkably  uniform. 
The  mean  temi^erature  fTi  June  and  July,  1899,  the 
coldest  months,  was  54°  (P.),  and  in  January  and 
February,  the  hottestTT^'^  ;  the  annual  mean  being 
^°.  In  20  years  the  mean  was  63°  ;  summer,  77°; 
autumn,  65°;  winter,  54°,  and  spring,  63°;  mean  of 


36 

Janaary,  the  warmest  month,  79°;  of  July,  the 
coldest,  52°^  The  extreme,  or  extracTrdinary,  limits 
were  107°,  and  very  rare  104°,  frequently  9o°  and 
in  wdnter  28°,  which  occurred  but  three  or  four 
times.  In  February,  1900,  the  heat  rose  to  103°, 
but  the  period  of  intense  heat  was  only  ei.2:ht  days. 
Such  conditions  are  extremely  rare. 

The  agricKUural,  indusirial  and  commercial 
features  are  those  of  greatest  interest,  and  yet,  to 
give  you  an  adequate  idea  of  them,  I  must  give 
you  figures,  and  they  are  not  ahvays  interesting  ; 
but  an  intelligent  audience  prefers  them  to  any 
"glittering  generalities"  desirous  of  knowing 
what  Argentine  really  is  and  has. 

The  population  of  the  whole  country  is  now 
about  5,000^000  ;  its  present  rate  of  growth  per  de- 
cade IS  aDout  JjBj2j:T_Q£jit.  The  United  States  is 
W  per  cent.,  Germany  16jp_£]L-cmit. 

"The  Pi'ovince,  or  State,  of  Buenos  Aires  is  as 
large  as  Illinois,  Indiana,  Maryland,  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts  combined,  or  two  and  one-half 
times  as  large  as  New  York  State,  120,000  square 
miles,  and  mostly  plains,  with  750  miles  of  coast 
line.  It  has  1,200, 000  inhabitants,  10,000,000  head 
of  cattle,  80,000,000  sheep  and  2,200,000  horses.  In 
1901  it  raised  762,000  tons  of  wheat  and  1,360,271 
tons  of  corn,  a  respectable  showing  ;  and  the  value 
of  agricultural  and  pastoral  products  was  $740, 000,- 
000."  The jvlieat  aTga^ofjtlie  Hepu-blic,  mostly  in 
four  provinces,  Buenos  Aires,  SairUi  J^  Cordolm 
and  Entre  Rios,  is'a bout  "8,500  ()00  acres.  80,000,-1 
OCRJlx)  T0070U[),000  bushels  of  wheat  are  exported^ 
The  total  area  under  cultivation  in  the  Republic  in 
1901  was  17,500,000  acres"  ^he  increase  over  1891 
was  136  per  cent.  The  crops  w^ere  :  wheat,  1,964,- 
000  tons;  linseed,  490,000  tons;  corn,  2,134,000 
tons.  The  total  of  arable  land  is  253  million  acres, 
of  which  240  million  do  not  need  irrigation. 

In  the  whole  Republic  there  are  over  30,000.000 
head  of  cattle.  The  annual  increase  is  25  per  cent. 
5,600,000  horses  and  120,000,000  sheep  ;  (in  the  U.  S. 
there  are  62,000,000.)  Tlie  annual  increase  in 
Argentine  is  33  per  cent.  3,000,000  carcasses  were 
sent  to  Europe  in  1901. 

One  of  the  i mj)ortant  i nd u stries  of  the  country 
is  the  "  Sala dero y '  wh icirfro m  its  name  signilies 
salted  or  jerked  beef  and  extract  of  beef,  etc. 
Nearly  S46.000,Od(Lare  invested  in  them.  Brazil  is 
the  ])ilncipal  market.  Over  1,000,000  head  of  cattle 
weie  killetl  for  tluj  Saladeros  in  1900.     The  meat- 


ireezino-  fa(;tories  exported  100,000  tons  of  meat  in 
19UL  An  importantTacLoi'  in  Llle  Ai'^-entine  meat 
trade,  and  it  may  be  said  in  tlie  meat  trade  of  tlie 
world,  is  the  snccessful  result  of  continued  efforts 
to  send  chilled  meat  to  Great  Britain.  The  River 
Plate  Fresh  Meat  Company  started  this  trade  in 
1901,  exporting  in  that  year  29,919  quarters  of  beef  ; 
and  from  Jan.  1st  to  jSlay  31, 1902,  o  months,  it  ex- 
ported 88,148  quarters. 

Since  that  date  the  imports  into  Great  Britain 
have  rapidly  increased,  and  recent  dispatches  from 
London  relate  how  this  factor  in  the  London  meat 
market  is  alarming  the  Beef  Trust  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Australian  shippers.  Argentine  is 
placing  its  chilled  meat  in  London  at  a  consider- 
ably  lower  price,  and  is  competing  successfully 
with  mearfrom  tlie  United"  States.  ' 


Flock  of  Sheep. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  Wool  indnstry  is  very 
important,  about  one-half  million  bales  shipped  to 
Europe  being  the  export  product  in  the  year  1901- 
1902,-31.000  to  U.  S.  and  28,000  to  Great  Britain. 

Argentine  is  a  protectionist  country,  and  its  re- 
sources for  conducting  the  Government  are  largely 
raised  from  the  Custom  dues.  In  1899  the  imports 
free  of  duty  amounted  to  814,769,933  (gold),  and 
those  subject  to  dnty  8102,080.738  (gold).  The  ex- 
ports were  8184,917,531  (gold).  The  United  States 
imports  three  hnndred  millions  per  annum  of  sugar, 
hides,  linseed,  jute,  hemp,  wood  and  fruit,  and 
thirty-six  millions  of  wool  and  Avoolen  articles. 
All   of  these  are  produced  by  Argentine,  yet  only 


37 

six  million  of  the  33G  millions  come  from  Argentine;, 
or  two  i)er  cent. 

The  United  States  exports,  in(;Iu(lini^  cereals,, 
meat  antf  live  stock,  about  920  inillioiis.  and 
only  10  millions  of  this  go  to  Argentine,  or  about 
one  per  cent  ;  wirTTe'Ai'gentine's  i)urclTases  of  the 
same  articles  in  England  were  3U  millions,  and  GO 
millions  from  other  countries.  "^^ 

Reciprocal  traTle^  would  open  the  United  States 
to  Argentine  wool  and  treble  the  production  in  a 
few  years.  There  should  be  direct  lines  to  that 
country  from  the  United  States,  and  the  time  should 
be  reduced  from  about  27  days  to  15  or  18  days. 
We  should  ship  to  Argentine  our  manufactures, 
our  coal,  pine  wood,  petroleum,  etc.,  and  we  should 
receive  from  Argentine  its  w^ool,  hides,  grease,  dried 
fruits,  hard  wood  for  tanning  and  dyeing,  etc. 
Now,  for  want  of  return  freights,  steamers  load  at 
U.  S.  ports  for  Buenos  Aires,  and  return  via  Liver- 
pool to  New  York,  frequently  via  South  Africa. 

In  reference  to  wool,  I  have  already  stated  that 
in  the  entire  United  States  there  are  only  about 
62  million  sheep,  while  there  are  120  million 
in  Argentine.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the 
ranges  in  the  far  West  of  the  United  States, 
which  are  absolutely  necessary  for  sheep-rais- 
ing, are  rapidly  being  reduced  by  the  extension 
of  our  population  westward,  and  the  cutting  up  of 
great  areas  into  smaller  farms.  Not  only  do  the 
smaller  farmers  as  they  go  West  wage  constant  war 
with  the  sheep  herders,  but  the  cattle  raisers  do 
the  same  ;  so  that  the  time  is  sure  to  come  very 
soon  when  we  will  need  the  wool  of  Argentine. 
What  this  country  should  do  with  a  great  agricul- 
tural country  like  Argentine,  capable  of  immense 
productions,  is  to  receive  its  raw  materials,  and  ship 
to  it  our  manufactured  goods. 

It  is  proper  in  closing  this  part  of  the  subject,  to 
quote  a  short  ])aragraph  which  appears  in  the  Ar- 
gentine Year  IBook,  recently  published,  from  the 
j)en  of  Mr.  Ronaldo  Tidblom,  Chief  of  the  National 
Dept.  of  Agriculture  and  Live-Stock  Industry.  In 
closing  up  a  long  and  very  important  article  in  that 
Y'ear  Book  on  the  agriculture  of  Argentine,  he 
makes  the  following  statement : 

"  Nature  has  undoubtedly  endowed  Argentina 
with  advantages  for  agricultural  and  pastoral  farm- 
ing not  to  be  found  in  any  other  country  of  the 
world,  and  it  is  not  too  bold  a  forecast  to  say  that 
if   the   country   continues   to  improve  her  natural 


38 

gifts  in  the  same  degree  in  which  they  have  been 
cared  for  and  ini])roved  np  to  the  present  time,  the 
day  will  come  when  the  Argentine  farmers  will  have 
absolute  control  of  the  world's  food  markets." 

The  money  of  the  country  is  on  a  jDaper  basis, 
and  the  minimum  value  of  a  dollar  was  fixed  in 
1899  at  44  cents  gold,  or  127  per  cent,  premium. 
The  market  value  of  a  gold  dollar  expressed  in 
paper  money  varies  now  between  $2.27  and  $2.84, 
and  the  gold  dollar  of  the  United  States  is  at  a  4 
per  cent,  premium  over  that  of  Argentine. 

"Railways  have  had  an  extensive  development. 
In  1867  tTiere  were  855  milgs:  in  1880  there  were 
1568TTrr-mO,  5,862  ;  in  1 9()0^  1 0,601^  of  which 
1,'^48  belong  to  the*Government  and  9,858  to  foreign 
companies.  In  length  of  line  Argentine  stands 
ninth  on  the  list  of  countries,  but  as  compared  with 
the  United  States  the  mileage  is  about  5  per  cent. 
The  paid-up  capital  is  $550,()0(),()()0  (gold).  The 
total  receipts  in  J  900  were  $4o, 000, 000  (gold).  Com- 
paring the  railroads  of  Argentine  with  those  of  the 
rest  of  the  world,  we  find  that  in  Argentine  the 
length  of  line  per  one  thousand  inhabitants  is  8.46 
kilometers,  while  it  is  4.86  in  tlie  United  States, 
0.98  in  Germany  and  1.70  in  France. 

The  great  Southern,  the  Western  and  some  other 
lines  are  still  making  extensions,  and  the  Southern 
has  crossed  the  Neuquen  River  and  is  looking  for 
a  pass  to  cross  the  Andes. 

There  are  three  gauges — 5  feet,  which  is  really 
the  standard,  4  feet  8|  inches,  and  a  narrow  gauge, 
usually  about  8'8''  (1  meter). 

The  total  length  of  telegraph  lines  is  28,000  miles, 
of  which  12,000  belong  to  the  Government.  Com- 
pared with  the  United  States,  the  Western  Union 
alone  has  192,705  miles  of  poles  and  cable. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  railroad  lines  now  in 
construction  Is  the  Transandine,  which,  upon  leav- 
ing Mendoza,  follows  the  Mendoza  River  to  its 
source  and  climbs  to  the  summit  of  the  Pass  of  the 
Andes,  8,900  meters  (18,000  feet)  above  sea  level. 
The  Abt  system  of  adhesion  up  to  2^  per  cent.,  and 
then  Rack  to  six  per  cent,  is  employed. 

Some  very  interesting  views  can  be  had  of  the 
iipproach  from  the  Argentine  side.  Lofty  moun- 
tains, rugged  slopes,  rushing  rivers  and  the  Puente 
del  Inca  (the  Incas'  bridge),  a  natural  bridge 
formed  evidently  by  the  river  breaking  through  a 
great  deposit  of  cemented  material,  caused  by   an 


39 


avalanche.     The   railroad    is   not  completed,    and 
some  of   tlie  most  difficult  work  is  yet  to  be  done 


First  Tunuel  out  of  Mendoza. 


Speaking-  generally  of  the  Kailroads,  they  are 
well  constructed,  though  good  ballast  on  the  great 
plains  is  lacking.  The  cars  are  like  American  cars, 
but  the  tirst-class  day  coaches  are  much  more 
luxurious  than  ours.  All  the  long  distance  trains 
have  comfortable  sleepers  ;  a  buffet  and  dining  car 
goes  with  all  throngh  trains. 

In  regard  to  the  industries  of  the  country,  while 
the  main  products  are  agricultural  and  the  export 
as  well,  important  industries  are  slowly  develop- 
ing. While  sugar  is  an  agricultural  product,  the 
40  sugar  mills  may  be  classed  among  the  industries. 
In  1870  Argentine  imported  22,000  Jons,  but  in 
1899~exiwrted  5S,000_t^is.'T^iere  are  .^52, 000, 000 
invested. 

There  are  over  60  b.reweries  in  the  country. 
The  annual  product  is  about  440,000  gallons. 

Tliere  are  182  distilleries  ;  the  alcohol  is  made 
principally  from  corn.  The  annual  product  is  about 
3,()00,0()()  gallons. 

VMriijio-jf<j]^vpry  important  iudustry,  The  first 
flour  mill  was  built  in  1S50  in  the  City  of  Cordova  ; 
the  lirst  steam  flour  mill  was  built  in  Buenos 
Aires  in  1845.  In  189o,  by  the  census  of  that  year, 
there  were  659  mills,— 234  worked  by  steam,   an 


40 

303  by  water  ;  the  total  amount  of  flour  made  was 
383,147  tons.  The  country  now  exports  about 
80,000  tons,  all  in  bao-s  and  mostly  to  Brazil,  valued 
at  about  $3,000,000  (gold).  At  present  the  Brazilian 
market  is  giving-  a  preference  to  United  States 
flour  because  it  arrives  in  barrels,  which  must  lead 
to  the  same  method  in  Argentine,  although  the 
wood  suitable  for  barrel  staves  is  very  limited. 

The  A^IneJndustry  is  one  of  the  most  important. 
The  soil  suitabTeT'or  grapes  covers  an  immense  area, 
extending  from  the  Northern  to  the  Southern 
Provinces  along  the  slopes  of  the  mountains. 
Mendoza  and  San  Juan,  west  of  Buenos  Aires,  are, 
however,  the  best  adapted  to  vine-growing.  In 
1900  there  were  89,000  acres  in  vines  valued  at 
about  $10,000,000  (gold).  The  transportation  of 
the  wine  by  rail  in  1901,  in  Mendoza  alone, 
amounted  tol60,000  tons,  and  the  stock  of  wine  in 
the  wine  establishments  (bodegas)  was  33,000,000 
litres  (871,000  gallons).  ' 

The  Dairy  industry  a  few  years  ago  mad  i>rac- 
tica lly  no  existence,  and  nothing  at  all  was  d one 
with  'the  milk  of  the  millions  of  cows  in  the 
country,  Now,  large  dairies  are  springing  up  in 
all  tile  pastoral  parts  of  the  country ; 
the  neatest  and  most  tempting  places  to  enter  in 
the  City  of  Buenos  Aires,  are  the  white-painted, 
scrupulously  clean  places  for  drinking  milk, 
scattered  all  over  the  city,  the  milk  being  sent 
in  from  the  great  "estancias."  These  dairies  are 
being  built  in  the  most  approved  style,  and  they 
prepare  pasteurized,  maternized,  sterilized  and  all 
other  kinds  of  milk  preparations.  The  exports  of 
butter  alone  in  1901  were  3,322,391  lbs.  In  the  year 
1895  it  was  only  880,000  lbs. 

Iron  and  Steel  industries  are  important,  although 
there  is  practically  no  ore  or  coal  in  the  country. 
In  1895  there  were  154  iron  foundries  and  156  re- 
pair shops,  with  a  capital  of  $15,000,000.  Every 
class  of  machinery  is  now  manufactured,  even  to 
small  engines  and  boilers. 

Matches  :  the  tax  alone  in  1899  amounted  to 
2,000,000  dollars. 

Tobacco  :  the  excise  tax  on  which  and  its  pro- 
ducts in  1901  amounted  to  $4,200,000  (gold). 

Four  million  dollars  (gold)  are  invested  in  textile 
manufactures  employing  6,200  persons  ;  canvas 
factories  one  million  (gold),  employing  2,000  per- 
sons and  making  5,000,000  yards,  and  ten  million 
dollars  in  hat  factories  employing  700  hands. 


41 


As_lo  minino",  there  are  valuable  copper  mines 
containing  gold  and  silver,  also  rich  veins  of  golTT, 
with  recent  discoveries  of  iron  ore^  but  tliese  var- 
ious products  have  not  been  developed  to  any  great 
extent,  due  to  remoteness  from  railroads  and  the 
roughness  of  tlie  country,  making  the  exportation 
very  costly.  These  minerals  include  gold,  borax, 
copper,  marble,  silver  ore,  lead  ore,  etc. 

After  this  cursory  and  possibly  uninteresting 
statement  of  statistics,  it  is  a  relief  to  turn  to  the 
beautiful  and  a  really  great  City  of  the  World- 
Buenos  Aires— and  give  you  a  brief  outline  of  its 
most  important  characteristics.  First,  a  little  his- 
tory and  more  dry  figures  to  give  an  adequate  idea 
of  its  size  and  general  features. 

Its  early  history  is  full  of  trouble.  Founded  in 
1535,  destroyed  and  rebuilt  ;    and  then  from  1650, 


•   'V 


SUiJ«9B*l!!mKB 


City  of  Buenos  Aires. 


when  there  were  400  houses,  it  grew  slowly  under 
the  old  Spanish  regime,  and  later,  under  dictators 
and  bad  rulers,  it  slowly  advanced  in  spite  of  an 
unstable  Government.  In  1852,  when  the  noted 
Rosas  was  turned  out,  it  had  76,000  inhabitants. 
Chicago  was  just  then  passing  through  the  hard 
trials  of  a  little  Western  town,  and  had  not  more 
than  20,000  people.  In  1864  Buenos  Aires  had 
140,000  inhabitants,  and  Chicago  about  the  same  ; 


42 


in  1869,  178,000.  But  Chicago  had  already  started 
on  its  j)henomenal  growth  and  reached  over 
300,000.  In  ]  887  Buenos  Aires  had  400,000,  and 
Chicago  1,000,000. 

In  October,  1902,  Buenos  Aires  had  864.518,  and 
it  is  growing  at  the  rate  of  about  40  per  cent,  per 
decade.  It  is  destined  to  reach  the  million  mark 
by  the  year  1906.  It  is  now  the  largest  City  in 
the  World,  South  of  PliiUidelphia,  if  we  except 
Chinese  Cities. 

Comparing  its  present  rate  of  growth  per  decade 
with  some  other  cities,  we  tind  the  following: 
Greater  London,  20  i)er  cent.:  Xew  York,  HI  per 
cent.;  Chicago,  54  per  cent  ;  Phila.,  23  per  cent.; 
Greater  Berlin,  19  per  cent.;  Buenos  Aires,  40  ijer 
cent. 

The  City  is  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Kiver  Plate, 
a  sloping  bank  50  or  60  feet  above  the  level  of  water, 
rising  up  to  considerably  greater  elevations  in  the 
centre  of  the  city.  It  is  about  120  miles  from  the 
sea  at  Montevideo.  Its  area  is  one  of  tite  greatest 
in  the  World,  44,830  acres  ;  Paris  has  only  19,280, 
Berlin,  15,625,  Hamburg,  15,681,  and  Vienna  13,690. 
It  would  be  a  good  day's  journey  to  go  around  the 
City,  as  its  perimeter  measnies  39  miles. 


[•".ilucio  dol  ConiiTosso. 


As  far  as  the  natural  conditions  permit,  the 
streets  are  laid  out  in  the  form  of  a  chessboard, 
and  are  generally  about  360  feet  apart  from  centre 
to^  centre.     In  the  central   part  of    the   City   the 


43 

streets  are  narrow  ;  it  isdifficuilt  for  three  eni'i-ingcs 
to  pass.  There  are,  liowever,  a  few  88  feet  wide, 
Mild  one  or  two  aveiines  about  :i  hundred  feet. 
The  hnest,  :iud  said  to  be  the  best-lighted  sli'eet 
in  the  World,  is  the  Avenida  de  Mayo,  whieh  is  in 
the  centre  of  Ihe  City  as  to  the  nund)ei'in,<;'  of  the 
houses  North  inid  South.  It  has  a  line  asi)ludt 
l)avenient  and  double  elect  lie  li^lils  in  the  centre. 
It  was  cut  through  IIk^  blocks  a.  few  years  a.uo  from 
the  Casa  de  (Tol)i<'rn()  (Government  House),  near 
the  port,  to  the  18th  strc^et,  somewhat  less  than  a 
mile.  At  tlie  other  end  tliere  is  being  built  a 
beautiful  Cai)it<)l  building  that  will  cost  about 
5,()0(),(i()()  dollai's  (gohl). 


PtBei- 

_^.fW 

-j5arii 

. 

simf 

I.I       ■ 

1 

^1 

H 

I^^QI 

muH 

I^H 

1 

■ 

iS 

||H 

^H 

1 

1 

m 

^1 

H 

PlMza  Libertiid. 


Thei-e  are  72  ])arks  and  small  areas  outside  the 
main  streets,  with  a  cond)ined  aiea  of  al)()ut  1,400 
acres.  These  parks  are  more  tastefully  laid  out 
and  more  neatly  kei)t  than  can  be  found  in  any 
other  country  in  the  world,  Paris  excepted.  In 
fact,  in  many  respects  the  City,  in  its  streets, 
lights,  ])arks  "and  stru(;tures,  resend)h\s  Paris,  ex- 
cept that  there  are  more  one  story  residences  than 
in  Paris.  The  prevailing  style  is  Spanish,  vyith  a 
patio  (a  kind  of  open  area)  and  the  rooms  all  facing 
it,and  in  this  patio  a  garden  and  fountain,  when 
the  proprietor  is  able  to  have  it ;  if  not,  pots  of 
flowers  very  much  like  the  ordinary  city  house  in 
Mexico.  The  style  of  the  houses  of  the  wealthy 
may  be  seen  on  Avenida  Alvear, 


44 


The  pavements  are  wood  (nearly  all  liaid,  suit- 
able wood  of  the  country),  asphalt,  granite  blocks, 
macadam  and  rubble.  No  city  has  better  pave- 
ments in  the  central  part.  In  the  outskirts,  how- 
ever, much  of  the  pavement  is  very  bad  and  un- 
even, merel}^  rubble,  but  immeuse  sums  are  being 
expended  in  substituting-  rubble  for  granite  blocks 
and  asphalt. 


Aveuida  Alvear. 


There  is  no  city  auywhere  with  mor.-  lines  of 
street  cars  ;  in  fact,  with  the  exception  of  two 
streets,  there  is  a  line  in  every  one  of  the  principal 
thoroughfares.  And  leading  out  to  the  pleasant 
suburban  towns,  Belgrano,  Palermo  and  Flores 
there  are  electric  lines  similar  to  those  in  American 
cities,  using  the  overhead  trolley.  In  fact,  all  the 
eqnipnient  from  rails  to  trolle}^  comes  from  the 
United  iStates.  Very  extensive  changes  are  being 
made  in  all  parts  of  the  City,  substituting  horse- 
cars  for  electric.  There  are  now  275  miles  of  street 
car  lines,  which  carried,  in  1900,  116,447,982  pas- 
sengers. 

There  is  a  pioject  and  a  national  concession  for  a 
system  of  underground  electric  tram  lines,  connect- 
ing the  three  main  railway  stations  with  the  Plaza 
Victoria  and,  in  one  direction,  extending  by  a  sur- 
face line  far  out  in   the  country.     If   underground 


45 


lines  pay  in  any  city  in  tlie  world,  they  will  in 
Buenos  Aires,'  for  the  conditions  are  especially 
adapted  to  their  easy  construction,  tlie  material 
being  suitable  for  tunneliiio-,  :uul  a  great  mass  of 
IDeople  crowded  into  the  '*  Centre''  with  its  narrow 
streets,  where  the  present  surface  movement  is 
often  extremely  congested.  A  United  States 
citizen  has  the  concession. 

In  1868  there  was  a  terrible  epidemic  of  yellow 
fever  due,  in  a  large  part,  to  unsanitary  'condi- 
tions, but  immediately  afterward  the  city 'began  a 
very  extensive  system  of  water  and  drainage  works 
costing  33  millions  of  dollars  (gold),  discharging 
the  sewerage  15  miles  distant,  and  the  storm  waters 
by  great  intercepting  sewers,  now  being  completed, 
into  the  river  in  front  of  the  city.  The  City 
Water-works  take  their  water  above  the  city, 
where  it  is  never  contaminated.  These  works  were 
designed  by  Messrs.  Bateman  and  Parsons,  Engi- 
neers, of  London,  and  the  main  construction  was 
carried  out  under  their  supervision. 


Water  Works  Biiildin< 


The  water  of  the  River  Plate  is  good  but 
muddy,  and  it  is  clarified  in  settling  basins  before 
being  delivered  to  the  distributing  reservoir  built 
on  one  of  the  highest  points  of  the  city.  This  dis- 
tributing reservoir  is  a  work  of  art,  covered  with 
glazed  tiles   over  pressed   brick.     These  works  all 


46 


too^ether  have  made  Buenes  Aires  one  of  the 
healthiest  cities  in  the  World,  as  the  death  rate 
proves. 

Ten  years  ao;o,  upon  the  completion  of  the  main 
works,  the  mortality  per  1,000  was  30  ;  now  it  is 
16  1/2.  This  compares  very  favorably  with  other 
large  cities.  London  has  19.2,  Glasgow  21.6,  Liv- 
erpool 26.3,  Manchester  24.1,  Dublin,  30.4,  Paris 
20.1,  St.  Petersburgh  24.7,  Vienna  20.7,  Madrid 
30.1,  Rome  17.6,  Venice  22.8,  New  York  19.7, 
Philadelphia  17.7,  Brussels  17.9.  Boston  19.0  and 
New  Orleans  (white)  17.9. 

The  Government  is  soon  to  extend  the  works  at  a 
cost  of  5  millions  (gold). 

The  climate,  taking  the  whole  year  round,  is  very 
equable  and  very  agreeable.  The  parks  are  always 
green  ;  vi;ies  and  palms  and  a  species  of  banana 
Ijlants  are  seen  everywhere,  and  flowers  all  the 
year  in  the  open.  It  has  a  semi-tropical  country 
in  the  North  and  in  Paraguay  from  which  to  pro- 
cure the  plants,  where  the  Victoria  Re^^  and 
other  beautiful  plants  grow  wild. 

In  reference  to  education,  the  primary  education 
is  compulsory  from  the  age   of  nine  to     fourteen  ; 


Cat  bed  1 


secondary  education  from  fourteen  to  nineteen  is 
optional,  as  also  the  university,  or  higher  education, 
from  nineteen  to  twenty-five  or  twenty-six.  No 
man  can  enter  into  any  of  the  professions,    includ 


47 

inff  engineering,  and  take  a  prominent  position  in 
the  Govei-nnient  witliont  l)eing  a  graduate  of  the 
National  University,  and  having  talven  the  course 
outlined  in  the  above  division  of  ages. 

In  1900  there  were  450  thousand  pupils  in  the 
public  soliools,  whicli  are  free  to  all,  and  free  to 
people  of  all  religions.  Although  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion is  the  national  religion,  neither  it  nor  any 
other  religion  is  allowed  to  be  taught  in  the 
schools. 

In  the  National  University  there  are  four  facul- 
ties—law, and  social  science,  medicine,  exact  physi- 
cal and  natural  science,  and  philosophy  and  letters. 
In  1901  there  were  8,562  students  in  the  University. 

In  leference  to  religion,  everywhere  in  Argentine 
under  the  Constitution  all  may  worship  God  freely, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience. 
While  the  Government  itself,  like  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Switzerland,  etc.,  rec- 
ognizes an  established  Church  and  assists  in  its 
maintenance,  it  also  often  assists  in  benevolent  and 
educational  work  undertaken  by  other  denotnina- 
tions. 

A  very  important  work  of  this  kind  is  the  Ar- 
gentine Evangelical  Schools,  initiated,  promoted 
and  carried  on  by  Mr.  William  C.  Morris.  The 
report  of  1901,  just  issued,  shows  there  were 
1,820  pupils  in  various  departments  ;  in  the  previ- 
ous year  there  were  1,076.  This  school  is  really  a 
National  school  and  is  assisted  in  a  measure  by  Con- 
gress, although  largely  dependent  upon  private 
subscriptions,  which  are  made  to  it  by  not  only 
Protestants,  but  leading  Catholics  as  well.  It  is 
devoted  entirely  to  the  education  and  care  of  chil- 
dren of  the  poor,  who  cannot  enter  the  ]mblic 
schools  for  want  of  suitable  clothing. 

The  general  style  of  the  city  is  cosmopolitan,  in 
buildings,  in  stores,  in  residences,  in  dress,  in 
habits  and  customs  of  the  people.  It  is  made  up 
of  many  nationalities.  According  to  the  Census  of 
1895,  there  w^ere  in  the  country  about  3,000,000  Ar- 
gentines (all  children  born  there  of  foreign  parents 
are  Argentines)  and  about  500,000  Italians — by  far 
the  largest  number  of  immigrants— and  they  are 
far  better  than  the  immigrants  of  the  same  nation- 
ality that  come  to  the  United  States.  Some  of  the 
best  and  most  intelligent  x^^<>ph^  in  all  kinds  of 
business  and  industries,  especially  in  agriculture, 
are  Italians.  Next  come  the  Spaniards,  about 
200,000 ;     next   the    French,    somewhat   less  than 


48 

100,000  ;  next  the  English,  22,000  ;  next  the  Swiss, 
15,000,  and  lastly  the  North  Americans,  as  we  are 
called,  1,400.  These  figures  refer  to  the  year  1895  ; 
the  number  of  foreigners  in  the  countr}^  December 
31,  1899,  was  1,199,808,  an  increase  of  20  per  cent. 
on  the  returns  of  the  year  1895. 


Immigrants 

in  44  years . . 

..1,935,077 

Italians 

it                 u 

..1,108,550 

Spaniards 

"          "■      .  . 

.  .     361,079 

French 

"          *■'      .  . 

..     102,636 

British 

"        '^     . . 

34,031 

Austrians 

"         ''     .  . 

. .       ;a,698 

Germans 

"         "     .  . 

27,834 

Swiss 

"         "     .  . 

.  .       24,873 

Belgians 

. .       19,082 

The  history  of  the  lighting  of  streets  in  the  city 
is  very  interesting,  and  shows  that  the  city  keeps 
pace  witli  others  in  this  respect.  The  itirst  record 
of  public  lighting  was  in  1778,  when  the  city  had 
lamps  in  the  shape  of  a  tin  of  horse-oil  with  a  wick  ; 
then  came  tallow  dips,  then  oil  lamps  ;  then  came 
gas  in  1885,  and  in  1888  electricity  began  to  replace 
it  in  part ;  and  on  December  31st,  1900,  the  city 
was  lighted  with  889  arc  lamps,  318  incandescent 
of  16  cp.,  14,084  gas  lamps,  many  with  the  Wels- 
bach  burner,  and  8,590  kerosene  lamps,  and  there 
were  36  electric  light  stations,  with  a  capital  of  9 
million  dollars  (gold),  and  with  a  capacity  of  23,300 
electric  horse-x^ower. 

In  addition  to  telegraph  lines,  there  are  four 
Cable  Companies  working  Avith  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  keeping  up  a  close  connection 
with  all  parts  of  the  World.  The  service  is  very 
good  and  prompt  ;  its  time  of  transmission 
between  Buenos  Aires  and  London,  "  via  Gal- 
veston"  and  Western  Union  lines  and  cables, 
is  about  60  minutes,  and  with  New  York  30  min- 
utes. When  we  consider  the  distance  and  the 
route,  we  are  astonished  at  the  working  of  this 
line,  which  crosses  over  the  Andes  12,000  feet  above 
the  sea  level,  tunnels  under  the  snow  and  avalanches 
and  reaches  the  Pacific  Ocean,  only  to  take  suc- 
cessive leaps  by  loops  along  the  coast  to  Tehuan- 
tepec,  in  Mexico  ;  over  the  Isthmus,  across  and 
under  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  Gal 
veston,  s])eeding  then  its  swift  flight  over  the  poles 
of  the  AVestern  Union  to  New  York  City  ;  and 
then,  without   stopping   to   rest,  plunges   into  the 


40 

depths  ol"  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  tnlks  to  the  re- 
ceiver in  London  in  60  niinntes  after  it  left  the 
operator's  lingers  in  l^uenos  Aires.  By  a  wonder- 
fnl  invention  of  recent  years,  this  message  lias 
passed  i"rt)ni  ocean  to  laixd  many  times  and  hack  to 
ocean  withont  stopping,  through  a  ''  human  re- 
lay,"—a  machine  worked  by  a  human. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  difference  in 
level  between  the  highest  point  on  land  of  tlie 
lines  of  the  Centi'al  and  South  American  Telegraph 
Company  and  the  lowest  point  of  its  cables  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  is  about  31,000  feet— six  miles. 

This  Company  has  three  underground  cables 
which  cross  the  Andes  and  work  uninterruptedly, 
notwithstanding  that  they  are  co\-ered  with  snow, 
in  some  i^laces  at  great  depth,  for  about  eight 
months  of  the  year. 

The  telephone  service  is  in  the  hands  of  private 
companies  ;  the  capital  invested  is  over  $10,000,000 
(gold);  there  are  about  11,000  subscribers.  Tliere 
are  no  really  long-distance  lines,  except  one  re- 
cently opened  to  Rosario. 

The  house-fronts,  when  kept  in  repair  and 
painted,  are  neat  and  aichitecturally  beautiful. 
The  w^ords  "repair"  and  "painted"  must  be  ex- 
plained. There  are  no  wooden  houses,  which 
these  words  might  imply  ;  they  are  almost  always 
made  of  rough  brick,  covered  with  what  is  called 
"revoque,"  a  covering  of  plaster  or  "staff,"  and 
sometimes  artilicial  stone.  The  better  class  of 
houses  generally  have  a  base  of  granite,  marble  or 
other  natural  stone  three  or  four  feet  high,  and 
then  brick  covered  w^ith  "revoque."  Sometimes 
the  natural  stone  extends  to  the  second  story,  and 
then  invariably  comes  the  artificial  covering  ;  after 
a  while— two  or  three  years— this  begins  to  discolor 
and  flake  off,  requiring  painting  and  repairing  ; 
after  ten  years  it  begins  to  become  an  "  eyesore," 
and  at  the  end  of  tw'enty  years  it  must  all  come  off 
at  very  considerable  expense.  An  instance  to  be 
cited  is  the  American  Church,  Methodist  Episco- 
pal, wdiich  was  built  25  years  ago,  but  for  hve  or 
six  years  past  it  has  presented  such  a  dilapidated 
appearance  that  it  has  become  necessary  to  remove 
the  revoque  from  the  sides  and  front  from  the  base 
to  the  steeple,  and  renew  it  at  a  cost  of  !?10,0()0— a 
lai'ge  sum  for  a  poor  church. 

A  question  came  up  recently  about  the  Congress 
Palace  Just  mentioned,  as  to  what  should  be  the 
external  covering  of  this  grand   striu'ture.     Fortu- 


50 

Tiately,  the  commission  of  engineers  to  pass  upon 
this  'and  other  questions  decided  upon  a  marble 
covering,  and  their  decision  was  approved  by  the 
Government. 

One  of  the  finest  constructions  now  being  finished, 
after  standing  uncomi)leted  for  ten  years,  is  the 
beautiful  Theatre  Colon,  which  by  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  Meano,  the  architect  (who  is  also  the  architect 
of  the  Congi-ess  Palace),  I  am  able  to  show  you 
from  some  slides  he  has  sent  me. 

The  means  of  locomotion  about  the  city  are  abun- 
dant—street cars  everywhere,  and  a  very  good  and 
economical  cab  service.  There  are  few^  coupes,  no 
public  hansoms  and  only  one  or  two  private  ones ; 
but  the  street  carriages  are  two-liorse  victorias 
which  carry  four  people.  The  private  turnouts 
are  equal  to  those  of  any  city  of  the  United 
States,  especially  the  horses,  whicli^re  of  thn 
best  imported  'stock.  The  "  Corso  "  and  the 
approaches  to  it  on  a  Saturday  or  Sunday  after- 
noon are  very  attractive.  It  is  in  the  beautiful 
park  of  Palermo,  one  of  the  suburbs,  broad  ave- 
nues, beautiful  shrubbery,  lakes  and  shady  drives, 
and  immediately  in  fro'nt  the  broad  river  Plate, 
Avhose  further  shore  is  beyond  the  horizon. 

The  people  show  great  taste  in  the  arrangement 
of  their  stores,  and  particularly  the  shop  windows; 
from  a  butcher's  shop  to  a  confectioner's  and  a  lace 
store,  the  fine  French  taste  is  visible  everywhere. 
A  walk  along  Florida,  the  principal  shopping 
street,  a  fiae  asphalt  street  with  no  street  cars  in 
it,  is  one  of  the  delights  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  one 
never  tires  of  it.  If,  for  a  fortnight,  you  miss  this 
promenade,  you  hardly  know  the  street,  foi-  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  stores  has  greatly  changed  in  the 
meantime,  by  a  complete  change  of  the  decora- 
tions. 

The  manner  of  living  is  Continental,  not  even 
English— a  cup  of  coffee  with  a  roll  in  the  early 
morning  ;  breakfast  at  11  to  12:30  (which  is  a  meal 
in  courses),  and  dinner  at  7.30,  the  principal  meal 
of  the  day.  This  is  the  custom  among  all  classes, 
high  and'low  ;  and  there  is  another  custom  (it  is 
strange  how  soon  you  fall  into  it)  :— tea  or  coffee 
or  matte  (a  species  of  steeped  herb  [yerbaj,  pressed 
into  a  peculiar  little  gourd  used  as  a  bowl  and 
drawn  out  of  it  with  a  hollow  silver  tube  called  a 
matte  stick).  This  4  o'clock  drink  is  as  necessary 
as  any  meal.  In  the  (jfovernment  House  (Casa  de 
Gobie'rno),  the  Government  provides   tea  or  coffee 


for  all  of  its  officials  and  employes,  and  little  rooms 
are  seen  in  various  ))arts  of  the  buildini;-  where  it 
is  made  and  served  from,  always  acconii)anied  with 
some  kind  of  delicate  biscuit. 

Perhaps  some  current  i)rices  may  he  of  interest, 
remembering  always  that,  to  get  the  price  into 
American  money,  you  must  take  only  four-tenths 
of  the  price,  to  allow  for  the  discount. 

Foreign  letter  postage  is  loc.  per  1/2  oz  (6c.) 

Domestic  letter  postage  is  5c.  perl/2  oz.  (2c.) 

Telegrams  each  of  first  ten  words,  5c.  (2c.),  and 
the  snccessive  words  3c.  (1 .2c.).  Telegrams  in  any 
other  language  than  Spanish,  double  price.  Ad- 
dress and  signature  are  counted  as  in  Europe. 

The  nsnal  fare  for  a  victoria  is  a  dollar  (40c. 
gold),  whether  you  take  it  by  the  course  or  by  the 
hour. 

The  foreign  debt  of  the  National  Government  in 
1900  was  8388,771,614  (gold),  and  the  internal  debt 
$3,322,500  (gold).  There  are  thirty  different  loans, 
the  interest  on  which  ranges  from  3  1/2  to  6  per 
cent.  ;  the  total  interest  charge  per  annum  in  1900 
was  $22,349,900.84  (gold).  It  requires  annually,  to 
pav  the  interest  on  the  total  debt,8lS, 661, 864  (gold) 
and   811,695,218  (paper). 

The  total  revenue  of  the  Government  in  1900 
was  862,045,458  paper   and  837,998,704  (gold). 

It  is  generally  known  that  in  1890  a  terrible 
financial  crash  came  upon  the  country,  at  the  time 
of  the  Baring  failure  ;  since  then  it  has  had  to 
struggle  to  carry  the  load  imposed  by  the  disasters 
of  those  days  ;  "^however,  perhaps  not  more  disas- 
trous than  happened  to  Chicago  in  1893,  as  many 
Avill  attest  who  were  cauo-ht  in  the  Columbia  Na- 
tional Bank  failure  and  others. 

What  language  is  spoken?  Spanish,  which  is 
the  nationallanguage  ;  but,  as  might  be  expected 
in  a  cosmopolitan  city,  French,  Italian,  English  and 
German  are  spoken  almost  everywhere,  particu- 
larly French. 

As  English  money  and  Englishmen  have  done  more 
than  any  to  develop  the  country,  have  built,  own 
and  run^iearly  all  the  railways,  many  of  the  great 
estancias  and  other  businesses,  particularly  com- 
mercial, the  English  language  is  very  generally 
used  in  railroad  and  navigation  circles. 

With  these  general  characteristics  of  the  country 
and  the  Capital  City,  I  must  ii;ive  you  a  brief 
resume  of  the  ocean  commerce,  which  has  done  so 
much  for  the  country,  and,  situated  as  it  is  at  these 


52 


antipodes  of  the  Avorlcl,  so  necessary.  First,  a  few 
dry  facts  and  then  the  description  of  commercial 
facilities. 

In  1899  the  valne  in  gold  of  goods  imported  was 
about  $117,000,000,  exported  8185,000,000.  Of 
these  $44,000,000  imports  came  from  Great  Britain 
and  $15,000,000  from  the  United  States  ;  Italy 
comes  next  with  $14,000,000  and  Germany  next 
with  $18,000,000,  then  France  with  $11,000,000  and 
Belgium  with  $9,000,000.  But  exports  show  a 
different  distribution,  for  France  took  $41,000,000. 
Germany  $29,00(>,000,  Belgium  $24,000,000,  Great 
Britain  $22,000,000,  the  United  States  $8,000, ouo 
and  Italy  $5,000,000.  Of  the  foreign  trade  Buenos 
Aires  had  87.2  per  cent,  of  the  imports,  Rosario 
8.8,  La  Plata  1.2  and  Bahia  Blanca  0.80.  Of  tlie 
exports  Buenos  Aires  had  55.5  per  cent.,  Rosario 
18.4,  La  Plata  2.30  and  Bahia  Blanca >00.  These 
ports  are  mentioned,  as  some  information  about 
them  is  needed  to  explain  the  commercial  situation. 
Of  all  the  goods  reaching  the  River  Plate  Coun- 
tries SO  per  cent,  comes  to  Argentine. 

In  1885  the  National  Government  began  the  con- 
struction of  very  large  docks  at  Buenos  Aires  ; 
hitherto  all  the  business  had  been  done  from  the 
anchorage,  about  12  miles  from  the  city,  the  inter- 
vening space  being  a  great  n.ud  bar,  the  water  from 


Riachuelo,   1901. 


a  depth  of  25  feet  gradually  shoaling  to  the  shore 
line  at  the  city.  This  was  so  Hat  that  it  was  neces- 
sary often  to    transfer  the  passengers   and  goods 


53 


from  the  lighters,  with  wliich  tliey  had  cdiih'  thus 
far  from  the  vessels,  to  small  boats  and  lo^i-reat 
wlieel-carts  that  went  out  a  long  distance  in  the 
water  to  meet  the  lighters. 

The  new  docks  are  very  extensive,  and  lie  along 
the  immediate  front  of  the  city  and  connected  with 
it ;  they  were  designed  by  the  well-known  English 
firm  of  engineers,  Hawkshaw  and  llayter,  and  car- 
ried ont  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  James  Dob- 
son,  the  resident  engineer.  The  concessionaire  was 
an  Argentine  citizen,  Mr.  Madero  :  the  contractors 
Awre  the  exi)erienced  English  hrm  of  Walker  & 
(yo.,  wdio  built  the  Manchester  Ship  Canal.  These 
men  all  deserve  the  higliest  credit  for  carrying 
through,  under  the  financial  difficulties  of  the 
period  above  mentioned,  a  great  public  woi-k,  cost- 
ing :t:38,(H)0,()0()  (uold). 


Entrance  Darsena  Norte. 


In  order  to  reach  the  docks  from  the  sea,  a  chan- 
nel had  to  be  excavated  in  the  mud  foreshore  from 
the  anchorage.  This  channel  (the  North  one)  is  at 
low^  tide  21  feet  deep  and  380  feet  wdde,  and  about 
5y2  miles  long  from  its  intersection  with  a  chan- 
nel wliich  already  existed  by  previous  dredging 
from  the  other  end  of  the  port,  at  the  mouth  ol  a 
small,  sluggish  stream  called  the  Riachuelo,  in 
which  channel  there  generally  is  about  19  feet 
of  water  at  low  tide.  The  tide  of  2  or  3  feet,  de- 
pending largely  ujion  the  direction  and  force  of 
the  wind  and  very  uncertain,  ])ermits  vessels  draw- 
ing about  23  1/2  feet  to  enter  the  port  by  the  North 


54 


Cliaimel.  The  new  port  was  connected  with  the 
older  port,  and  now  both  channels  are  being  nsed, 
and  the  depths  in  them  are  abont  as  I  have  stated. 
The  Government  lias  recently  begun  the  exten- 
sion of  the  IS'orth  Channel  straight  out  to  the  an- 
chorage, and  later  will  deepen  it  to  22  feet.  In  the 
meantime  the  navigation  uses  a  crooked  channel 
beyond  the  intersection,  which  has  been  partly 
dredged,  curving  round  from  the  South  Channel  to 
the  anchorage.     The  depth  of   water  in   the  noi'th- 


Darseuii  Nurte,  and  docks,  &c, 


ern  entrance  basin  of  the  Port  is  21  feet,  but  in 
the  four  great  docks  28  feet,  with  tidal  gates  so 
that  the  vessels  at  low  tide  may  be  afloat. 

The  works  are  built  in  the  most  substantial  man- 
ner—masonry walls  founded  on  what  is  called 
"  tosca  "  (loess),  the  hard  substratum  that  is  found 
in  this  part  of  the  country.  The  four  docks,  oi- 
basins,  are  from  620  to  750  yards  long,  and  ai"e  all 
170  yards  Avide,  connected  by  passageways  22  to  27 
yards  wide,  over  which  passes  by  hydraulic  turn- 
ing bridges,  the  foot,  vehicular  and  rail  traffic. 
A  sea  wail  in  front  protects  the  entire  port.  On 
the  citj^  side  are  three  and  four-story  brick  ware- 


o5 


houses,  24  in  all,  witli  u  total  ri'()nta<i:<'  of  I  1/2 
miles.  Sheds,  cattle  yards,  railroad  tracks,  hy- 
draulic cranes  and  capstans  and  other  important 
appurtenances  give  the  port  modern  facilities  for 
handling-  cargo. 

When  the  docks  were  opened  at  the  Sonthcrn 
end  in  1899,  the  registered  tonnage  of  vessels  arriv- 
ing and  dei)arting  \\t  the  Port  of  Buenos  Aires  was 
3,800,000;  in  1901,  8,661,299,  more  than  100  ])er 
cent,  increase.  There  are  only  twelve  ports  in  the 
world  of  greater  tonnage,  and  none  of  them  show 
such  xdienonienal  growth. 

In  1880,  about  the  time  that  th(>  works  wrre  pro- 
posed, the  tonnage  was  644,r)70,  and  the  plans  were 
made  for  2,(H)0.()00  tons  only. 


View  of  the  Docks. 


The  extraordinary  growth  of  the  coinnicrce  has 
made  it  necessary  to  make  an  enlargement  of  the 
facilities,  and  th'is  was  one  of  the  works  intrusted 
to  me  during  the  last  year  of  my  stay  in  Argen- 
tine. I  am  able  to  show  you  the  general  plan  of 
the  actual  port  with  the  proposed  enlargement, 
which  will  have  free  access  from  the  sea  and  a  depth 
of  26  feet. 

The  plan  also  provides  facilities    foi'  ••iiillamma 
bles"— coal,     petroleum,    gasoline,     iiapliiha     and 
some  explosives. 

The  Standard  Oil  Com])any  of  New  York  is  ik.w 
arranuina-  to  bring  l)ulk  oil  in  tank  steam. "is  to 
Argentine,  and  the  Shell  Transport  ('ompany  is 
preparing  to  make  a  specialty  of  the  importation 
of  fuel  ()il  from  Texas  and  the  Dutch  East    Imlies. 


56 

The  work  of  enlargement  of  the  port  is  divided 
into  sections,  so  that  it  can  be  carried  out  section 
by  section,  as  the  increase  of  commerce  will  re- 
quire. The  general  plan  also  includes  the  protec- 
tion and  deepening  of  the  entrance  channels. 


r~ 

.,         \ 

^ 

'                                        '   '              '^^■*-^4 

Port  of  Buenos  Aires  and  Plan  of  enlargement. 

One  of  the  principal  ports  of  the  country  is 
Rosario.  Ocean  navigation  reaches  it,  and,  for 
that  matter,  reaches  Colastine,  the  port  of  The  city 
of  Santa  Fe,  the  capital  of  the  Province.  The  i-eg- 
istered  tonnage  of  the  Port  of  Rosario  in  1899  was 
3,000,000,  of  which  more  than  2,000,000  were  over 
sea  vessels,  about  700  per  annum.  The  merchan- 
dise entered  and  cleared  was  about  1,650,000  tons  ; 
67  per  cent,  of  the  exportation  was  wheat.  In  the 
busy  months  there  are  often  over  30  vessels  seen  at 
one  time  along  the  wharves  and  the  barranca,  where 
the  wheat  is  loaded  in  bags,  sliding  down  from  the 
high  cliff  GO  feet  above  the  vessel,  in  what  are 
called  "canaletas."  The  imports  amount  to  about 
$10,000,000  (gold),  and  the  exports   to  830,000,000. 

The  N'ational  (iovernment  is  making  a  great  port 
of  Rosario,  endowed  with  m11  modern  facilities  for 
handling  cargo.  It  sent  out  to  Europe  and  the 
United  States  a  full  report  with  all  necessary  data, 
submitting  the  project  to  capitalists  and  con- 
tractors, with  the  request  for  propositions  to  build 
and  operate  the  port.  It  will  cost  from  $10,000, 000 
to  112,000,000  (gold). 


67 

The  contract,  after  nn  examination  of  mid  icpoi-t 
upon  the  projects  ])re.sente(l  by  a  Board  of  wliidi  1 
had  the  honor  to  be  President,  has  been  let  to  tlie 
well-known  and  experien(;ed  firm  of  contractors, 
Mess.  Hersent.  of  Paris,  associated  with  Schneider 
and  Co.,  of  Creusot,  the  Krupp  of  France.  The 
works  of  construction  were  inaui^-united  by  the 
President  of  tlie  Republic  on  Oct.  20th,  l',)()2. 

The  plans  of  tlu^  work  have  been  based  on  the 
data  above  mentioned. 

Some  important  x^roblems  had  to  be  solved  in 
connection  with  the  improvement  of  so  great  a 
river  as  the  Parana,  the  bed  of  which  is  subject  to 
such  important  changes,  and  also  its  islands  and 
banks. 

The  front  line  of  the  proposed  wharves  is  over 
21/2  miles  long-.  The  masonry  piers  must  go  down 
into  the  tertiary  sand  below  the  scour  of  the  river, 
and  their  foundations  will  be  from  60  to  80  feet 
below  the  low  watei-  level. 

The  importance  of  this  work,  furnishing  a  mod- 
ern seaport  to  the  second  city  of  the  country,  can 
scarcely  be  over-estimated.  In  my  report  on  the 
project  made  in  Sept.,  1900,  I  used  the  following 
words,  which  two  years  of  subsequent  study  have 
corroborated : 

"It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  establishment  of  a 
first-class  port  at  Rosario  with  suitable  channels  of 
access,  will  revolutionize  completely  the  commerce 
and  industrj^  of  this  Republic."  /^ 

I  can  now  show  you  some  interesting  views  of  tfie 
more  important  buildings  of  the  city. 

La  Plata  port  and  city  were  built  by  the  Pro- 
vincial Government,  when,  in  about  188*0,  the  Na- 
tional Government  came  to  Buenos  Aires  to  occupy 
it  as  the  capitol  of  the  nation.  It  is  an  excellent 
port;  it  is  built  on  the  shore  of  the  Riode  la  Plata, 
about  35  miles  from  Buenos  Aires,  and  cost  about 
$14,000,000  (gold).  The  opening  of  the  national 
port  at  Buenos  Aires  has  driven  most  of  the  com- 
merce from  La  Plata,  but  it  is  capable  of  being 
made,  with  a  comparatively  small  sum  of  nion^^y, 
deep  enough,  in  its  entrance  channel  (five  miles 
long)  and  in  its  port  areas,  to  accommodate  vessels 
of  26  feet  draught  at  low  tide;  it  now  has  21  feet. 

The  remaining  port  of  importance  and  rapidly 
growing  is  outside  of  the  River  Plate,  in  the  South, 
Bahia  Bianca  ;  it  is  the  principal  ship])ing  port  of 
agricultural  products  by  the  Great  South^ni  Rail- 
way, the  largest  system  in  the  Republic.     This  port 


58 


is  in  an  estuary  of  the  Ocean,  and  is  a  protected 
liarbor;  in  fact,  the  terminal  of  the  Railway  is  about 
35  miles  from  the  open  ocean.  The  Railway  is 
buildino-  a  steel  pier,  1640  feet  long,  with  spacious 


The  Dock,  Keel  aud  Bilge  Blocks. 

warehouses  and  19  miles  of  siding  ;  and  theie  will 
be,  when  all  works  are  completed,  over  half  a  mile 
of  Avharf  frontage,  supplied  with  electric  crimes. 
The   National   Government   is   buildino-   in   this 


The  President  inayurating  the  Dock 


Estuary  at  Puerto  Militar,  or  Puerto  Belgrano,  a 
system  of  dry  docks  and  basins  on  a  large  scale. 
The  tirst  dry  dock,  one  of  the  best  and  largest  in 
the  world,  is  completed  and  now  in  use.  It  was  de- 
signed and  built  under  the  immediate  supervision 


of   the  well-known    Italian    Knuint'er,  Chev.  I^iiigi 
Luiggi,  who  liad  charge  oC  siinihir  work  at  (icnoa. 


The  San  JIartin  in  tlic  dock. 

This  dock,  built  of  first  class  materials  and  upon 
the  most  modern  methods,  can  take  the  lai-gest 
naval  or  merchant  ships  of  the  World,  as  it  has  a 
useful  length  of  713  feet  and  an  entrance  width  of 
85  feet,  and  a  depth  over  the  sill  of   32  1/2  ("(vt  a1 


L.   S.   UaUkship  l.)wa  (.■iilci  ing  ilu    W-'.U. 

mean  high-tide,  22  feet  at  low  tide  it  has  jntrr 
mediate  gates,  so  that  two  or  thrre  small  vessch 
can  be  docked  at  the  same  time  or  separately. 


60 


I  cannot  liere  go  into  details  of  construction  wbicli 
were  fully  given  in  a  paper  on  the  subject  submit- 
ted by  Mr.  Luiggi  toi^tlie  IX  International  Naviga- 
tion Congress  at  Diisseldorf,  July,  1902.  He  has 
very  kindly  given  me  over  30  lantern  slides,  of 
which  I  can  show  you  a  few  to  give  you  a  general 
idea  of  the  dock.  The  plans,  photographs  and, 
possibly,  a  relief  model  of  the  dock  will  be  exhibit- 
ed at  the  World's  Fair  in  St.  Louis,  in  1904. 

In  October  last  the  U.  S.  Battleship  Iowa,  the 
flagship  of  the  South  Atlantic  Squadron,  was 
docked  at  Puerto  Militar. 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  at  Buenos 
Aires,  there  is  a  large  business  with  New  York  by 
means  of  five  steamship   lines,    and    throngh   New 


Entrance  Government  House. 


York  with  Chicago  and  other  cities,  from  which 
are  shipped  a  large  amount  of  agricultural  ma- 
chinery of  all  classes,  from  cultivators  and  plows 
to  great  steam  threshing  machines  of  the  J.  I.  Case 
Co.,  of  Racine,  Wisconsin.  Not  only  from  Chicago, 
bnt  from  all  manufacturing  districts,  the  trade  of 
our  country  is  increasing.  You  see  our  machinery 
everywhere,  and  it  is  everywhere  considered  equal 
to  any— Baldwin  Locomotives,  Jackson  and  Sharp 
Cars,  and  Harlan  and  Hollingsworth's.  The  Amer- 
ican freight  car  of  25  and  80  tons  is   replacing   the 


61 


old  Bel,o;ian,  Frencli  and  Englisli  7  and  10-ton  cars. 
If  the  xVnierican  cars  are  not  all  made  in  Ttlie 
United  States,  they  are  copied  from  ours.  ^3  'I'he 
most  approved  bridges  are  from  the  United  States. 
I  have  been  over  several  and  examined  one  on 
the  Transandine  Kailway,  built  by  the  Phoenix 
Bridge  Co.,  of  Phihidelphia,  excellent  bridges 
and  giving  entire  satisfa(!tion.  The  Boston  Bridge 
Co.  sent  out  some  very  good  bridges.  The  horse- 
cars  by  John  Steplienscm  and  Co.,  of  New  York. 
Electric  cars  by  the  J.  G.  Brill  Co. ;  and  the  West- 
inghouse  Co.,  is  doing  well  there.  Large  quantities 
of  Southern  and  Oregon  pine  are  imported.  From 
the  U.  S.  comes  all  the  kerosene  used  in  the  coun- 
try.     I   might   go    on    enumerating    many    other 


I'lensa  Building. 

United  States  products.  1  can  well  say  that^the 
prospects  of  American  trade  witli  Argentine  are 
exceedingly  good. 

The  Argentine  Government  is  determined  to  im- 
prove the  great  rivers  of  the  country  by  methods 
which  have  been  found  to  be  best  in  other  countries 
under  similar  conditions.  The  results  of  our  experi- 
ence upon  the  Mississippi  are  being  closely  watched, 
studied  and  applied.  The  reports  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River  Commission  are  of  great  value  to  that 
country.  I  may  further  say  that  the  engineers, 
and  the  methods  pursued  by    them    ni-e   equal    to 


62 


those  of  any  country.  Every  Government  Engi- 
neer, to  take  a  promi^ient  position,  must  have  a 
diploma  from  the  Engineering  Department  of  the 
National  University.  The  graduates  of  this  excel- 
lent school  are  as  well  equip})ed  for  their  work  as 
those  from  any  school  in  the  world  ;  this  I  know  by 
experience,  for  four  of  them  (young  men)  have 
been  associated  with  me  as  my  immediate  assistants, 
and  in  my  position  as  Consulting  Engineer  of  the 
Government,  I  have  been  brought  into  close  rela- 
tions with  many  other  engineers,  and  I  have  the 
highest  opinion  of  their  ability. 

I  will  now  select  at  random  a  few  subjects  of 
special  interest,  and  a  few  views. 

The  Government  Building— Casa  Gobierno — 
sometimes  called  the  "  Casa  Rosada ' '  from  its  light 


Sarmieuto  School. 


rose  color,  and  in  which  was  my  office,  is  one  of  the 
most  prominent  buildings  in  Buenos  Aires. 

It  stands  in  a  prominent  and  central  position, 
facing  the  Ave.  Mayo,  and  looking  out  on  the  other 
side  over  the  port  ancl  the  River  Plate. 

One  of  the  finest  structures  in  Buenos  Aires  is 
the  "  Prensa  "  Building,  devoted  entirely  to  that 
morning  paper.  I  know  of  no  newspaper  offices  in 
the  woi-ld  that  can  compare  Avith  this  in  elegance 
and  convenience  in  all  its  interior  appointments. 

The  leading  newspapers  of  Buenos  Aires  are 
equal  to  any,  both  in  editorial  ability  and  in  tele- 
graphic news  from  all  i^arts  of  the  world. 


63 

The  Snrniiento  School  gives  me  an  oppor- 
tunity to  call  to  your  attention  this,  one  of 
the  most  learned  and  best  of  Presidents,  who, 
when  lie  was  Minister  at  Wasliin<it(m,  became  so 
enamored  of  our  country,  and  particularly  our  edu- 
cational methods,  that  he  engaged  a  large  number 
of  onr  young  lady  teachers  to  go  to  Argentine  as 
Normal  School  Teachers.  Many  of  them  are  there 
yet,  after  nearly  twenty  j' ears'  service,  a  service 
that  has  reflected  honor  upon  themselves  and  their 
country. 

An  institution  of  importance  is  the  Jockey  Club, 
for  by  its  intlueuce  the  Argentine  blooded  stock  of 
horses  has  been  made  equal  to  any  in  the  world, 
and  its  domicile  is  one  of  the  finest  and  most  ex- 
pensive of  any  club  house  in  existence,  and  its 
stand  at  the  race  course  at  Palermo  is  a  beautiful 
structure. 

Some  views  of  Recoleta,  the  principal  Cemetery, 
will  show  you  the  general  method  of  burying  the 
dead. 

It  is  proper  for  me  to  say  that  considerable  of  the 
statistical  data  was  obtained  from  "  The  Argentine 
Year  Book,"  Just  issued  for  the  first  time  (1902), 
and  that  some  of  the  hydraulics  are  from  a  con- 
tribution to  that  work  Avritten  by  myself.  The 
Annual  can  be  obtained  from  the  Moorgate  Pub- 
lishing Company,  of  London. 

I  cannot  close  this  lecture  without  introducing 
you  to  the  Pi-esident  of  the  Republic,  General 
Roca,  under  whose  wise  administration  the  country 
lias  prospered  and  by  whose  determined  purpose  to 
maintain  the  peace  the  impending  war  with  Chili 
has  been  happily  averted  and  a  permanent  peace 
established,  based  on  the  arbitration  of  the  trouble- 
some question  of  the  international  boundaries. 

You  mnj  properly  ask  me  why  I  have  brought 
before  you  the  subject  of  Argentine.  I  can  easily 
reply — First,  because  in  two  years  of  close  relations 
with  the  country,  and  especially,  with  the  Govern- 
ment officials,  I  formed  a  very  favorable  idea  of  the 
character  of  the  j^teople  and  of  the  possibilities  of 
business  and  in-ofitable  enterprise  for  our  own  peo- 
ple there.  And  second,  because  the  high  officials 
of  the  Government  and  leading  men  of  the  Coun- 
try desire  to  have  the  "'Norte  Americanos,"  as  we 
are  called,  come  to  Argentine  with  their  business 
energy,  integrity  and  ability,  and  their  capital  as 
well,  ito  help  build  npand  move  forward  to  its  high 


64 

destiny  that  great  cjHintry  of  South  America,  so 
like  our  own  in  its  climate,  soil,  rivers,  Coast  line 
and  other  general  features. 

_  If  I  have  succeeded  in  interesting  you  in  Argen- 
tine, and  in  giving  you  more  knowledge  of  it  than 
you  had  before,  I  shall  be  satisfied  with  my  efforts 
and  feel  that  I  have  done  a  service  to  that  country 
and  to  my  own. 


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